Herman Cain took another shot at clarifying his abortion stance on Fox News today, but in the process only added to the confusion.
Cain attempted to argue that when he said in a CNN interview earlier this week that the decision was ultimately up to the family, what he really meant was that it was up the family as to whether they wanted to break the law.
“I do not think abortion should be legal in this country,” Cain said on Fox today. “Abortion should not be legal. That is clear. But if a family made the decision to break the law, that’s that family’s decision.”
On its face, it’s completely bizarre for a presidential candidate to say that families should decide whether they want to break the law, but either way, it’s difficult to square with previous comments.
Cain told Piers Morgan the other day that, “What it comes down to is it’s not the government’s role or anyone else’s role to make that decision.” He also said, “It ultimately gets down to a choice that that family or that mother has to make. Not me as president, not some politician, not a bureaucrat. It gets down to that family. And whatever they decide, they decide….I shouldn’t try to tell them what decision to make for such a sensitive decision….The government shouldn’t be trying to tell people everything to do, especially when it comes to social decisions they need to make.”
Some have argued that he only made this comment in the context of rape or incest, but either way, nobody could reasonably interpret these remarks to mean what he said they meant today. Especially considering that if you go back a few months, Cain also told John Stossel, “I don’t think government should make that decision.”
But what could government do besides set laws and enforce them? Isn’t it assumed that anybody has the choice to do something illegal and risk getting caught? Cain’s statement like saying it’s illegal to rob a bank, but people get to choose whether they want to do so.
At this point, all I can say is that I think Cain wants to be pro-life, but I’m just not sure he knows what that means.
To catch up on Cain’s previous confusing abortion comments, check out David Freddoso here and here.
