Sanders-backed gubernatorial hopeful's past pro-life views clash with current abortion stance
A Democratic gubernatorial hopeful in Maine, who is scheduled to campaign with Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., on Sunday and Monday, has been pitching himself to voters as a pro-choice candidate...
By Fox News · Fox News
A Democratic gubernatorial hopeful in Maine, who is scheduled to campaign with Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., on Sunday and Monday, has been pitching himself to voters as a pro-choice candidate for governor, but his track record indicates that wasn’t always his stance. As a state lawmaker, he received a 100% rating from the Maine Right to Life — a designation indicating a voting record wholly consistent with pro-life policies. Jackson’s reversal demonstrates the fallout of the Dobbs v. Jackson Supreme Court decision that ended a constitutional right to an abortion and made the issue, previously a federal debate, a state-driven consideration. In their 2022 decision, the Supreme Court ruled that no guarantee of a right to an abortion existed in the Constitution, meaning that individual states would have to decide on a case-by-case basis where to draw the line under what circumstances residents could legally end a pregnancy. TIM WALZ TALKS ABORTION DURING FINAL CAMPAIGN RALLY WITH MICHIGAN VOTERS: 'EVERYTHING IS ON THE LINE' Maine, with Jackson’s help, immediately passed expansions to abortion access, removing restrictions on late-term abortions. The move prompted praise for Jackson from Planned Parenthood, the country’s largest abortion provider. "We applaud President Jackson and the 20 state senators and 76 representatives acting in the best interest of Mainers today," Planned Parenthood wrote in a press release. Just 10 years earlier, Jackson had voted for a bill in 2011 that would have affirmed personhood in the womb. Two years later, in 2013, Jackson also voted to advance counseling requirements for women considering an abortion, providing them with second-opinion resources designed to explore alternatives to ending a pregnancy. Both of those efforts failed. PUERTO RICO GOVERNOR SIGNS LAW RECOGNIZING UNBORN BABIES AS HUMAN BEINGS Even so, they garnered enough attention to put Jackson on the radar of abortion rights groups — and not in a good way. In 2014, EMILY’s Li…