Linda McMahon Is Not As Pro-Choice As She Claims

It is not a secret that i believe this year's Senatorial contest between Chris Murphy and Linda McMahon is pivotal and, along with the Elizabeth Warren and Scott Brown race in Massachusetts, may well decide which party controls the United States Senate. If you are Pro Choice, control of the Senate is key to future appointments to the U.S. Supreme Court, which is one vote away from repealing Roe v. Wade, and to service as a firewall against anti-choice legislation spawned in the Republican-dominated House of Representatives.

The key voter demographic in the race between Chris Murphy and Linda McMahon are women. Last time Dick Blumenthal won a healthy margin against McMahon with women voters. This time McMahon has spent a significant investment of time and money into softening her image to appeal to women voters. She argues in her ubiquitous television ads (at least those not devoted to trashing Murphy) that she is independent, by which she means she will not follow the decidedly anti-women platform of her party, and after all she herself is a woman (leaving unsaid but implied that Murphy is not) and so must support women's rights.  

The linchpin of her campaign to distance herself from Mitt Romney, Republican Congressional leaders and the GOP platform is to assert she is pro-choice, meaning she supports contraception and abortion rights for women. 

There are some reasons to doubt her sincerity as pro-choice. In response to the 2010 NARAL poll McMahon stated: "I am pro-choice; however, I oppose partial-birth abortion and federal funding of abortions unless the life of the mother is at stake. I'm in favor of parental notification/parental consent legislation." NARAL has endorsed Murphy.

Her recent interview with the Hartford Courant Editorial Board revealed McMahon also disagrees with the 2007 Connecticut law that requires all hospitals, including religious institutions, to provide emergency contraception on request to rape victims.http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/10/linda-mcmahon-emergency-contraception-hospitals.php?ref=fpnewsfeed

This hard-fought legislation was passed by large majorities in the General Assembly. The Catholic Church has agreed to abide by this law. On this issue, at least, McMahon has aligned herself with the radical fringe of the anti-choice element in her party. There is little doubt that, if elected, McMahon would provide key votes to empower those who would restrict women's rights to control their own bodies. Whether she is personally pro-choice is of little moment if she tilts the balance of power in the Congress to the anti-choice forces.