Cain’s Fred Thompson moment on abortion?

Published October 20, 2011 4:00am ET



Herman Cain might think his abortion comments won’t undercut his “100% pro-life” record, but he should move quickly or face the full wrath of social conservatives. 

Cain’s biggest mistake was using an liberal argument to defend his pro-life views against seemingly harsh government restrictions on abortion.

Cain said:

“No, it comes down to it’s not the government’s role or anybody else’s role to make that decision,” said Cain. . . . “So what I’m saying is 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 have to tell them what decision to make for such a sensitive issue.”

in 2007, Fred Thompson made a similar mistake on Meet the Press, which effectively ended his support from social conservatives, a point that my former boss Robert Novak raised in a column at the time.

Thompson said:

“I do not think it is a wise thing to criminalize young girls and perhaps their parents as aiders and abettors.” He then went further: “You can’t have a [federal] law” that “would take young, young girls . . . and say, basically, we’re going to put them in jail.”

Going into the presidential race, Thompson had a record of being pro-life, but after voicing a liberal argument against federal abortion laws, social conservatives quickly realized that he didn’t speak their language and dumped him immediately.