Back in November, the New York Times reported that Right to Rise, the super PAC that Jeb Bush established, had produced a video casting Marco Rubio as “ultimately unelectable because of his hard-line stand against abortion.”
Rubio has always said that he supports an exception for abortion when the life of the mother is endangered and that he would be willing to sign legislation that includes exceptions for cases of rape and incest, even though he believes all unborn children have the right to life no matter the circumstances of their conception.
It may have been politically unwise for Rubio to publicly acknowledge that he opposes abortion in these circumstances as a matter of principle but supports legislation with these exceptions as a matter of prudence. But when Right to Rise first floated the attack that Rubio’s pro-life stance made him unelectable, leading pro-life voices called on Jeb Bush to make it clear publicly that he opposed it. As National Review‘s Ramesh Ponnuru wrote at the time:
When asked about Right to Rise’s criticism of Rubio’s pro-life stance, Bush said: “Look, I don’t think anybody should be critical of someone who’s pro-life, because I’m the most pro-life candidate on that stage.”
In the run-up to the New Hampshire primary, Bush seems to have changed his mind. As he told CNN on Friday: “Politically, it’s a tough sell to tell a pro-life mother — had her daughter been raped — that she would just have to accept that as a sad fact. This is not an easy decision, but Marco will have to explain that position.” Bush did not acknowledge that Rubio supports legislation that includes such an exception. In Saturday’s debate, Bush’s criticism was milder. “Others may have a different view and I respect it,” he said. “But I think we have to be cognizant of the fact there’s a lot of people that are concerned about having a pro-life position without any exceptions.”
When Bush said in November that he didn’t “think anybody should be critical of someone who’s pro-life,” perhaps he simply forgot to add the words “until the Iowa caucuses are over.”
