Both Republican state senator Scott Brown and Democratic attorney general Martha Coakley support legal abortion, but during yesterday’s debate Brown made a point of contrasting his position on this issue with Coakley’s extremist record. Coakley would be a “social crusader” on the issue in Washington, Brown said. “I’m not in favor of partial-birth abortion. I am not in favor of federal funding of abortion. I do not believe in lowering the age of consent to get abortions as Martha does.”

“No, that’s not my position,” Coakley replied. But the Boston Globe reported that in the 1980s “Coakley was a private lawyer who volunteered her time to help minors get court orders for abortions when they could not get their parents’ consent.”