Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R), who has repeatedly stated that he is pro-life throughout his political career, guaranteed earlier this year that he would sign a 20-week abortion ban if it reached his desk and would support the legislation nationally. But next week, the likely presidential contender will meet with evangelical leaders in Washington to convince them he is socially conservative enough to win the Republican nomination.
“As the Wisconsin Legislature moves forward in the coming session, further protections for mother and child are likely to come to my desk in the form of a bill to prohibit abortions after 20 weeks,” Walker wrote in an open letter in March. “I will sign the bill when it gets to my desk and support similar legislation on the federal level.”
Walker issued his support just a day after a Fox News interviewer and then a conservative activist called his stance on abortion into question. In the interview, he said that he cannot change the federal law that gives women the choice whether or not to have an abortion.
“Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker just gave what I can safely call the very worst interview on the life issue I have seen from a Republican in recent memory,” Frank Cannon, President of American Principles in Action, said in a statement. “Claiming you are impotent to act on your core principles is neither true nor wise. What about advocating for a ban on abortions after 20 weeks? That’s a law that has already been passed in 12 states, which the Republican National Committee endorses, and which most of Walker’s fellow Republican presidential candidates also support, Jeb Bush included.”
But even after assuring voters he would sign the restrictive abortion legislation, evangelical leaders are still expressing concern about whether his views on social issues align with theirs.
The governor will huddle with around 50 people on Capitol Hill next week, including the president of the Family Research Council who is skeptical about Walker’s values. “For the last few years, Governor Walker carefully avoided social issues, at one point even calling them a distraction,” the president, Tony Perkins, wrote in a newsletter that was sent to his group’s supporters in February, according to Politico.
The religious leaders say they are concerned about a TV ad Walker ran during his reelection fight last fall in which he said he is pro-life, but went on to qualify the statement.
“There is no doubt in my mind the decision of whether or not to end a pregnancy is an agonizing one,” he said in the ad. “That’s why I support legislation to increase safety and to provide more information for a woman considering her options. The bill leaves the final decision to a woman and her doctor.”
Earlier this month, Republican lawmakers in Wisconsin announced plans to introduce the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, a ban on abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy. The bill’s lead sponsor in the Assembly said in a statement the legislation would protect unborn babies who can feel pain because “human life transcends party lines.”
The bill would ban all abortions after 20 weeks, except in the case of a medical emergency. Any medical professionals who perform a later abortion would be charged with a felony, subject to three and half years in prison and charged a $10,000 fine.
But the legislation, like other state-level 20-week abortion bans and the federal legislation that was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday, would prevent victims of rape and incest from making the choice about whether or not to terminate their pregnancies. The Wisconsin bill would require doctors to inform women of the probable post-fertilization age of the child, the numerical odds for survival if the child were to be delivered at that age and the availability of perinatal hospice for babies who are expected to have short lives.
And the federal bill, which President Obama is likely to veto if it made it to his desk, would impose additional restrictions on victims of sexual assault, including a stipulation that rape survivors can only circumvent the 20-week ban if they sought counseling or medical care at a location other than an abortion clinic within 48 hours of the procedure.
Studies have documented that mandatory counseling and waiting period requirement laws are rife with medical misinformation and ultimately make it more difficult for women to access abortion services. And conservatives continue to rely on the scientifically dubious claim that fetuses can feel pain after 20 weeks.
Ten states currently have laws banning abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy, according to the Guttmacher Institute.
Like Walker, most of the other GOP presidential candidates and likely contenders have said they’d support a 20-week abortion ban. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush has said such a ban belongs in a “humane and compassionate” society, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) have expressed support and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, former Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Ohio Gov. John Kasich have all signed the bans into law.