More ‘awkward’ than ‘delicate.’ Cameron’s unsatisfactory response to rape survivor | Opinion
Attorney General and gubernatorial candidate Daniel Cameron is floundering in a swamp of his own making, stuck in the muck between abortion hardliners and regular folks.
The hardliners don’t care if a 12-year-old gets pregnant after being raped by her stepfather. They don’t think she should be able to terminate that pregnancy. Their hard lines on abortion exclude the chance of gray area or nuance. No exceptions for rape, incest of fetal abnormalities.
There’s a consistency in their outlook that makes a very complicated topic simple. Cameron has supported Kentucky’s new abortion laws that basically outlawed any exceptions, except for very vague language about the life of the mother. (As Herald-Leader reporter Alex Acquisto has documented, the vagueness is causing real harm to women.)
But hardliners don’t make up a majority of the voting public. Some of them are moderate Republicans and women who understand the horror of carrying the baby of your rapist to term.
Also, there’s that ad, possibly one of the most powerful political ads ever made, featuring said 12-year-old.
Now an adult, Hadley looks straight at the camera and says: “This is to you, Daniel Cameron: to tell a 12-year-old girl she must have the baby of her stepfather, who raped her, is unthinkable. I’m speaking out because women and girls need to have options. Daniel Cameron would give us none.”
So Cameron has had to waffle over whether he would ever support exceptions. He would, if the lawmakers would bring him a bill. (They won’t.) He might, if courts overturned the law. (Already tried, Cameron fought to uphold it). On Tuesday night, he did it again at a Spectrum forum, calling it a “delicate issue.”
“Awkward” might be a better word to describe being called out by a rape survivor about the real life consequences of your political position.
Cameron tried to deflect, once by talking about harsher penalties for rapists, and trying to say that Gov. Andy Beshear wants “abortion on demand.” This is nonsense, of course.
Beshear has been cagey on abortion but has said clearly that he thinks Roe v. Wade “got it generally right” with a limit on abortion after viability, or around 24 weeks.
Roe, or the overturning of Roe, is what started this whole thing, and now Republicans may be regretting the decision that was once their heart’s desire. As Kentucky showed in its defeat of Amendment 2, you can be against abortion generally, but oppose the idea of a total ban forever.
Cameron can pretend he cares about Hadley, just he like he pretends to care about teachers or public education. It’s a curious political move — I doubt moderates are fooled by the flip flops and he alienates the hardliners at the same time.
We’re soon going to see how well it works.
This story was originally published October 4, 2023 at 12:00 PM.
