U.S. Senator Tim Scott (R-SC) on Friday tried once again to not actually answer reporters’ questions about his position on abortion. He narrowly escaped having to admit his actual beliefs, while trying to present a sufficiently far-right anti-choice message that might resonate with GOP voters, just two days after he announced a presidential exploratory committee and one day after being widely mocked for his word salad remarks on the subject.
It is a remarkable move for a Senator whose position for the past decade has been that life begins at conception, and embryos should have the full personhood protections of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. In short, Senator Scott believes in a nationwide ban on abortion, likely a complete and total ban, but now that he’s likely to enter the race for the White House, he’s afraid to say so.
How do we know?
He told us, a decade ago, in this video of his 2013 speech before the Values Voter Summit, a right-wing annual conference sponsored by several anti-LGBTQ hate groups, a speech he linked to on his official government website, where he also states: “I regard all life as sacred, and am proud of our values and traditions. For this reason I am committed to protecting the unborn and continuing to take a stand in defending traditional and religious values.”
On Friday, Sen. Scott offered this compromise claim: “If I were president of the United States, I would literally sign the most conservative pro-life legislation that they can get through Congress.”
That’s what Senator Scott, who holds the most extreme abortion beliefs possible, told reporters Friday – while falsely claiming that “the people” have decided elected politicians should have the right to determine at what point an abortion ban should be implemented.
He also sidestepped the question of medication abortion.
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Scott refused to constrict himself to a six-week abortion ban, like the one Florida GOP Governor Ron DeSantis quietly in the dark of night with no reporters around, signed behind closed doors late Thursday night. He also refused to commit to the 15-week national abortion ban Sen. Lindsey Graham, his fellow South Carolina Republican, has proposed.
While taking the position that “the most conservative pro-life legislation that they can get through Congress” is wildly unpopular, Sen. Scott at least delivered it somewhat better than the statement he made when asked Thursday by a Newsmax reporter (video below) if he would support a complete federal ban on abortion (which he has said he would in the past.)
“I would simply say that the fact of the matter is, when you look at the issue of abortion, one of the challenges that we have, we continue to go through the most restrictive conversations without broadening the scope and taking a look at the fact that Thursday I’m a hundred percent pro-life,” Scott began.
“I never walk away from that. But the truth of the matter is that when you look at the issues on abortion, I start with the very important conversation I had in a banking hearing where I was sitting in my office and listening to Janet Yellen, the Secretary of the Treasury, talk about an increase in the labor force participation rate for African-American women who are in poverty by having abortions,” he continued, falsely characterizing the Treasury Secretary’s remarks, as he did during that hearting last year.
“I think we’re just having the wrong conversation. I ran down to the banking hearing to see if I heard her right. Are you actually saying that a mom like mine should have an abortion so that we increase the labor force participation rate? That just seems ridiculous to me,” Scott declared. “And so I’m going to continue to have a serious conversation about the issues that affect the American people. I want to start by pointing out the absolute hypocrisy of the left on the most one of the more important issues.”
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Also on Thursday, Sen. Scott tried out for size answers on a 15-week or 20-week abortion ban.
On Wednesday Sen. Scott tried this response to the critical issue of a woman’s right to choose.
Sen. Scott is taking a fair share of mockery and criticism.
CNN’s Edward-Isaac Dovere on Thursday tweeted, “Yesterday Tim Scott was evasive when asked if he’d back a national abortion ban at 15 weeks. This morning he said he favored one at 20 weeks. Now he says he’d consider one at 15 weeks. (In 2021, he co-sponsored a bill that would be a total national abortion ban.)”
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In response, DNC Chair Jaime Harrison on Friday said, “The common thread on all of this is that Tim Scott supports a national abortion ban.”
Thursday night MSNBC’s Chris Hayes summed up the South Carolina Repubkican’s word salad responses: “Tim Scott’s answers were like the rhetorical equivalent of watching someone who is not very good at swimming—like a kid who’s just learned—desperately flail about in a pool looking for something to hold on to so they don’t drown.”
“If Tim Scott had $1 for every different answer he’s given on abortion this week he’d have a campaign war chest bigger than Trump’s and DeSantis’ combined,” snarked Max Steele, the communications director of the anti-gun violence group Everytown.
The American Independent’s Oliver Willis declared, “Tim Scott, who will not be the nominee, supports an unpopular federal abortion ban, just like all the other Republicans, and American voters – especially women- do not. Period.”
NBC News’ Lawrence Hurley appears to agree: “Seems a pretty clear statement that Scott would sign a strict nationwide abortion ban,” he tweeted.
Watch the videos above or at this link.