Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY)
Rand Paul is a United States senator who would like to be president. One thing he would not like to do as part of convincing voters he is the best candidate, though, is explain
where he stands on abortion rights. We know he's against abortion, because libertarian-leaning Republicans never seem to think women's control of their own bodies falls under the category of individual rights to be protected from government interference.
"The thing is about abortion — and about a lot of things — is that I think people get tied up in all these details of, sort of, you're this or this or that, or you're hard and fast (on) one thing or the other," Paul said.
Heaven forbid people should get tied up in the details of where you, as a presidential candidate, stand on the issues. Of course, aside from the general concept of the government, not women, making this decision, Paul has good reason not to want to say. After all, the next question is "but what about rape and incest exceptions?"—a question where most Republican politicians want to hedge because their real answer ("no") is so unpalatable to general election voters.
He added, "I've supported both bills with and without (exceptions), you know. In general, I am pro-life. So I will support legislation that advances and shows that life is special and deserves protection."
That might work for Republican primary voters, but if by some weird chance Paul should be his party's nominee, we're going to need to talk a lot more about those anti-abortion bills without rape or incest exceptions that this man who wants to be president has supported. I know I'd like to hear his explanation for why the government should get to make that decision.