Blake Masters is the Republican candidate opposing incumbent Democratic Senator Mark Kelly in Arizona. Masters is closely allied with misogynistic billionaire Peter Thiel.
On his campaign website, he declared that was completely opposed to abortion at any stage of pregnancy, with no exceptions. He said he was “100% pro-life.” He called Roe v. Wade a “horrible” decision.
He called for “a federal personhood law (ideally a Constitutional amendment) that recognizes that unborn babies are human beings that may not be killed.”
But then came the election in Kansas, where Republican women joined with Democrats to block an effort to remove the right to an abortion from the state constitution.
Now, reports the Arizona Republic, Masters has softened the language on his website to pretend to be a moderate on abortion. In other words, he is trying to pull a Kavanaugh, pretending that he is not what he is.
He removed the reference to being “100% pro-life.” He claims to support reasonable limits on abortion, no longer completely opposed to it. The Roe decision is now described as “bad,” not “horrible.” He now claims to support Arizona’s ban on abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy.
The Masters campaign did not immediately elaborate on the website changes. He launched a digital ad Thursday addressing abortion, in which he says, “Most people support commonsense regulation around abortion.”
Kelly has supported federal abortion rights and blasted the Supreme Court’s ruling doing away with them.
He said about the Dobbs’ decision overturning Roe v. Wade:
“Today’s decision is a giant step backward for our country. Women deserve the right to make their own decisions about abortion. It is just wrong that the next generation of women will have fewer freedoms than my grandmother did,” he said in a written statement.
“In Arizona, there are already restrictive bans on the books that will take rights away from Arizona women, without exceptions even in the case of rape or incest. I know that this decision and these laws are leaving many Arizonans frustrated and scared. This is an all-hands-on-deck moment. I am resolved to defend and protect the right of Arizona women to make their own health care decisions.”
Masters has called Kelly an extremist for defending a right that existed for nearly half a century.
As Masters tries to rewrite his own history, will the women of Arizona be fooled?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
There is no such thing as a “moderate” when it comes to abortion. Either you trust women or you don’t. “Late term abortion” (much less “partial birth abortion” (sic)) is a red herring. Those abortions are quite rare and nearly always a result of a fetal anomaly or maternal medical condition which necessitates the very painful decision to terminate a very much wanted pregnancy.
And exceptions for rape, etc. are also diversions because it’s never specified what the procedure is for a woman to qualify for said exception. No right-wingers are going to allow an exception that allows a woman to simply state that she was raped – she’s going to have to “prove” it somehow. And no defense attorney would allow any proof short of conviction of the rapist in court (at which point the “abortion” would involve a pre-school aged child) because it would be prejudicial – if there was enough proof to allow an abortion, then that would bias the jury in favor of the defendant’s guilt.
Any candidate – Democrat or Republican – who favors any restrictions on abortion is an anti-choicer and should not get your vote if you are pro-choice.
In the early 1940s my mother miscarried at seven and a half months. The fetus had died for an unknown reason. When she went to the hospital, the doctors performed a legal abortion. In prewar America this was perfectly legal and necessary to avoid a potential deadly infection. Today some women are dying from sepsis because the “Tali-Christians” can impose their religious views on others.
Same here. I had a miscarriage at three months many years ago. In many states today, I would have been forced to carry a dead fetus for six more months. Barbaric.
Its not just theoretical. it has already happened. A woman had to carry a dead fetus for two weeks (which could have killed her or left her sterile) because she had trouble finding a doctor who was willing to risk prosecution to perform the procedure.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/07/20/abortion-miscarriage-texas-fetus-stell/
Woman says she carried Dead fetus for two weeks after Texas abortion ban
This highlights an “interesting” sale t of these laws. They don’t have to spend officially “require” a woman to carry a dead fetus. They accomplish the same goal by putting fear into the abortion provider so that no one wants to perform the procedure.
The lawyers who came up with these diabolical laws (with the bounties and nebulous terminology) are evil geniuses
It must be great “fun” sitting around at work each day and coming up with ways of torturing pregnant women.
Do they have classes in law school to teach how to do this sort of thing?
And getting paid for it!!
Probably incels who hate all women and blame them for their own rejection.
In the early 70s my mother had a miscarriage. Her doctored recommended a D & C and she went to her church to get advice. She was told to go ahead and have the procedure because there was no longer a viable pregnancy. Even then it was acknowleged that there was no point to carry on with the pregnancy. What would happen today?
Good points.
The other issue about language that allegedly allows exceptions for rape is that no health organization is going to provide an abortion if they think there is any chance they can be held legally liable. So, they won’t provide an abortion under any circumstance because they know proving rape will be difficult in the vast majority of cases and they are not going to be willing to take the chance.
So these supposed “allowances” for rape and even medical emergencies for the mother are little more than a cruel joke.
And the people behind these laws know that better than anyone else.
For self-styled “Christians” these folks are highly dishonest.
Yes, healthcare organizations are notoriously conservative in every sense of the word.
I actually don’t blame the healthcare organizations.
They simply can not afford to fight multimillion dollar lawsuits against states with essentially bottomless legal dollars. The way these anti abortion laws were written, the health care providers have to be very concerned that the states will go after them.
The states use fear of prosecution as a means to make sure the health care providers won’t take any chances, which accomplished pre jerkythe the goal that the statex are after.
The people behind these laws are just incredibly ddvious and ruthless in their methods.
And be these juggling fiends no more believed,
That palter with us in a double sense,
That keep the word of promise to our ear,
And break it to our hope.
–William Shakespeare, Macbeth
Ms. Ravitch,
You recently wrote on this blog that you are personally opposed to abortion, and you claimed that your former husband coerced you into having an abortion against your will. But several times every week you post about your support your abortion rights. Do you favor any restrictions on abortion like most socially democratic western European countries have?
Your fanaticism on this issue has really carried you away today. There is no state in the U.S. that requires a woman to carry a dead fetus after a miscarriage. What medical procedure to perform or not perform after a miscarriage is purely a matter of what a competent physician deems is in the best interest of the mother’s physical health. What crackpot internet site gave you such a patently absurd idea?
Jill-
You are a horrible person who would force a 10 year old to birth her rapist’s fertilized sperm.
Doctor’s don’t take risks when they don’t have a clear interpretation of law- read about the death of Ireland’s Dr. Savita Halappanavar.
You vote for Republicans because of the single abortion issue. You choose to omit that the next part of the plan is to make pharmaceutical contraception illegal.
Your vote makes possible an attack on voting rights for women, their right to drive, to have careers, to dress as they deem fit, to go places without male accompaniment, to own property, etc. Read about GOP Lt. Gov. candidate Matt Birk in Minnesota with 8 kids, specifically his 2018 speech at St. Thomas conservative Catholic College.
I loathe everyone like you who elects misogynists like Matt Gaetz and Donald Trump and Peter Thiel’s candidates (Thiel said women voting in a capitalistic democracy is an oxymoron). I loathe you because you made the courts of Leonard Leo with 9 kids possible. Those decisions force taxpayers to fund religious schools and exempts the schools from civil rights employment law. I loathe you because your vote enables the election of racists and people who want to cause misery to gay people.
Linda,
You are the biggest fanatic on this site, a monomaniac of the first order. I take the western European position on abortion: unrestricted access for the first trimester, with restrictions after that time allowing abortion when needed for the woman’s physical health. You make assumptions about me that are completely wrong – I haven’t voted for a single Republican in over 40 years.
Jill-
I am vehemently opposed to theocracy. The carving out of a position that prevents women from making their own decisions about their bodies fuels the right wing. In every age, in every country, the priest aligns with the despot (Jefferson).
Clearly, the recent wins have been for anti-abortionists. Rhetorically, how many states have had trigger bans on abortion after Roe v. Wade.
At this point, you are deflecting which aids the enemy.
About your voting record- I don’t believe you.
I am not personally opposed to abortion.
I believe that every woman should decide whether or not to have an abortion in consultation with her doctor.
If you have the stomach for it, Guardian obtained a video of People of Praise (women as handmaids). Amy Coney Barrett’s religious nut group allegedly has the traditions of speaking in tongues and practicing exorcisms.
The Aug. 26th Guardian article summarizes the toxic, anti-woman messaging of the group.
You have backtracked on what you posted not long ago. You wrote that you were personally oppoed to abortion but that you support the right of others to have abortions. That’s a reasonable position to have – why deny it now?
I personally believe that every woman should have the right to choose whether to have an abortion. I don’t make decisions for other women. Why should you or the Supreme Court or state legislatures?
No Samuel Alitos and Clarence Thomases in state legislatures should be making these decisions for women. That’s just not right. It’s frankly sickening. And stupefying that here we are, in the 21st century, arguing over this same ground yet again.
So, as you will see from that video, Ms. Borkowski, it was not a matter of a law requiring women to carry a dead fetus but of a law that had, de facto, the same effect because it scared providers away from doing in a timely manner what they needed to do for this woman. And though it has been years since Dr. Ravitch had the personal experiences that she has been brave enough to share (thank you, Diane), these are doubtless still sensitive personal matters. Bring these up in this way just doesn’t seem right to me. And I see no contradiction at all in Diane’s position. I’m sure that there are many others who would not want to have an abortion themselves who nonetheless support other women’s right to autonomy over their own reproductive experiences.
https://www.nature.com/articles/pr200950?fbclid=IwAR0_cdP_J7DX47dQpVLmI1jITPHi-eCjjXSrY-kqAG3rKw0_2V8zZ9ENnh8#Sec13
cx: Bringing these up
In other words, there is an ambiguity in the phrase “personally opposed to abortion,” which can mean “I am opposed to my personally having an abortion” or “I am, individually, opposed to abortion, but I don’t feel that I have the right to impose my will on others.”
There are people who hold a mystical view that at the moment when a sperm and egg unite to form a zygote, something called a soul enters into that zygote, making it a human being. These people oppose abortion, so I would say to them, fine, don’t have an abortion, but there is no evidence whatsoever for your view. None. And generally speaking, it doesn’t make sense to hold views supported by no evidence whatsoever, and it doesn’t make sense to base public policy on such views. What science tells us (see the metastudy I posted above) is that fetal tissues do not have anything like even minimal consciousness before about 26 weeks and then only passingly and minimally, if at all, and it’s difficult to imagine an evidence-based, or warranted, argument that a collection of tissues that has never experienced consciousness is human–e.g., has any personal identity or self that can be taken away, or ended.
A minor nit to pick regarding biological terminology.
When the soul enters the zygote (because it was blessed by the Holy Ghost) it actually becomes a zyghost
Theocracy-
The pope’s visit in 2015 to the west lawn of the U.S. Capitol.
Sen. Tester got 200 tickets to hand out and Rep. Ryan Zinke got 50
And for anyone who is interested, the zygote undergoes rapid cell division and forms the “blesstula” (which is again blessed by the Holy Ghost) which eventually implants itself in the uterine lining as a “blesstocyst” (yet again blessed by the Holy Goats)
Correction
The zyghost undergoes rapid cell division becoming the “blesstula”
Hilarious, SomeDAM. I think that the Blessed Doula is the Midwife.
Or maybe it’s spelled “blessedula”
I’ll have to consult my freshman biology text.
It’s been a very long time since I took biology, so I might get some of the spelling wrong.
I actually neglected a stage, the “moralula”, when the zyghost has 20 to 30 cells, the beginnings of moral development.
And then, of course, there is the masstrula, which refers to the embryo after it has been to church for the first time.
But yes, the blessed doula is indeed a midwife, but that is a different spelling and comes much later, at any rate, so we are getting ahead of ourselves
Then there is the name given to the zyghost after it grows up, receives a vocation, rises in the Church, is elected pope (il Papa) and visits countries in the Northern latitudes in the winter. The Popsicle.
The moralula. LMAO. Too much.
As you can probably gather, the Holy Goats play a critical part in every stage of development and if they are missing for even a brief moment (because they needed to relieve themselves in the yard, for example) at critical points, one can end up with a Charles Manson or even Donald Trump as a result.
I would bet that Trump missed the moralula stage entirely and instead underwent a deviant grabula stage, which would his explain his pussy grabbing urges.
You name it, he grabs it. The life savings of people wanting to become real estate entrepreneurs. Donations people think that they are making to a charity to benefit children. Donations people think that they are making to building the wall. Donations people think that they are making to his legal defense. The most top secret of secret documents. All the air in whatever room he’s in. What wag was it who wrote that Trump is the answer to the question, how does it feel to have one’s genitals grabbed by a bloated pig carcass?
Which suggests a species name for the current devolved Republicans: Homo amoralia.
There is a whole psychology associated with fetal development, expounded by Sigmund Freud in his lesser known work “Fetal Psychoanalysis (sometimes titled “The Fetus on the couch”)
If people like Blake Masters pass a “National Fetus Personhood” law, should fetuses pay taxes? Should a pregnant woman buy an extra ticket for a flight? Should fetuses have the right to vote (guess not, since 1-year-olds can’t vote)?
If a fetus can be sent to war (with the pregnant woman), even unknowingly, it should certainly be allowed to vote.
And drink alcohol too, but only 1 glass of wine a day, as per Economist Emily Oster’s recommendations.
Emily knows best!
Jill knows that it doesn’t matter what she or I believe or support. Leonard Leo just got a $1.6 bil. donation to create and further anti-democracy rule like that of his SCOTUS.
That certainly was depressing news!!! Where is the democratic equivalent of THAT?
Well, there is none.
John To sets and the others must be so proud of what they have birthed.
John Roberts
Not just anyone can say that they signed the death warrant for a country that lasted nearly 2 .5 centuries.
That takes some real ivy league ingenuity
I wonder what Harvard law professor Laurence Tribe now thinks of his student Roberts.
Tribe played no small part in getting Roberts on the Supreme Court.
Whatever else is true, Tribe is a very poor judge of character.
John Roberts is a lonely voice of sanity among the Republicans on the Court. He tried to persuade Kavanaugh not to overturn Roe, according to the Washington Post. Roberts was the vote that saved Obamacare. He’s the Chief Justice but the Court leader is Clarence Thomas.
Tribe’s not as bad as Dershowitz. IMO, trustworthiness is not a description that apples to either.
Dershowitz defends Jeffrey Epstein and Trump.
Tribe is a great xmconstitutional scholar.
They are not comparable.
2016- American Prospect, “The Five Worst Roberts Court Rulings”
If I recall correctly, Tribe and Lessig (both claim to be Democrats) signed an amicus brief for Janus.
Tribe and corporate personhood and, the EPA v. Peabody Energy
Jill – I have a problem with your post, regardless of what you claim is your position on politics and abortion laws. Can you guess what that might be? Please re-read your first sentence. Anyone who begins a “discussion” in such a manner does not deserve a response.
The right wing is making the U.S. very similar to Turkey.
“The topic of perversion at Iman Hatip (religious) schools is sensitive because a number of sexual abuse scandals have emerged from the network, which has been lavished with public funds under the conservative 20 year reign of Erdogan’s party.” “Abortion is practically banned in Turkey. The de facto ban began under the rule of Erdogan’s party.”
The big three influencers, Koch, evangelicals and conservative Catholics repositioned the U.S. as an underdeveloped nation.
Everyone outside the US now thinks we are a turkey, at any rate.
Stock a fork in us. We’re done.
Peter Thiel is counting on enough stupid people like commenter Jill Borkowski (who could be a man catfishing as a woman) to elect his candidates. The wife of Ohio Senate candidate JD Vance is the prominent person in his ads. She talks about Ohio and JD’s tough upbringing. Meanwhile, she is a global elite, a Bill Gates scholar who, as an attorney works for a firm with two locations, one in Calf. and one D.C. The couple recently moved to Ohio to run for office (bought a $1.4 mil. home). JD conveniently converted to Catholicism in 2019, after his success as a venture capitalist investing where and in what he lambastes on the campaign trail. Total hypocrites