Even Republicans can’t figure out what Kari Lake thinks about abortion

As she usually does, Kari Lake sought a friendly audience. But now her constant waffling on Arizona’s territorial-era abortion law has reached a point that even Republicans are growing wary of her.

Speaking at a campaign event Thursday night in Tempe hosted by Arizona State’s College Republicans club, the election-denying U.S. Senate candidate almost managed to avoid talking about abortion entirely. That is, until one such young Republican hit Lake with some friendly fire.

“Conservatives are really turning to you in hopes to support our protection at conception pre-Roe law. We’ve seen both your opposition and your support for this law in the past,” said a woman who identified herself as president of a “students for life” club on campus. “Could you please define your values and tell us how you’ll remedy the doubts pro-lifers have in you right now?”

Calmly, Lake reached into her bag of bullshit and pulled out some misinformation.

“I’ll tell you what: We are facing down right now an initiative on our ballot that will make us the most extreme state when it comes to abortion,” Lake told the audience.

There is indeed a ballot initiative. The Arizona Abortion Access Act, which would enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution, is likely to reach voters in November. But Lake’s claim that it’s extreme simply isn’t true.

Washington D.C. and six states do not place restrictions on abortion, and Virginia allows it until the third trimester, according to the Guardian. The Arizona ballot initiative guarantees abortion rights until fetal viability, or when the fetus can survive outside the womb. That’s typically around 23 or 24 weeks. Fourteen other states allow abortion until fetal viability.

Lake wasn’t done.

“What (the ballot initiative) is really about is allowing people, right up until the birth of the baby, to take that baby’s life,” Lake said.

Again, not true. The proposed law guarantees abortion rights up to viability, around 23 weeks. The state would only be prevented from creating or enforcing laws that interfere with abortions that are necessary for the pregnant person’s health. Late-term abortions are also exceedingly rare.

In 2022, the latest data available from the Arizona Department of Health Services, about 96% of the 11,407 abortions reported in the state were at a gestational age of 15 weeks or lower. Just .02% were performed at 21 weeks or later. In 2021, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention collected data on abortions from 40 states and New York City, and found that only 1% of abortions occurred after 21 weeks of gestation.

Then Lake returned the friendly fire, taking on the zeal of the anti-abortion community… to their faces.

“There needs to be exceptions for rape and incest and the life of a mother,” Lake said. “I know not everybody in the pro-life community believes that, and somehow when you say that, all of a sudden pro-lifers — they don’t like you anymore. We gotta get that straightened out.”

A history of Kari Lake flip-flops

Lake could start by straightening out her own position. Lake has denounced — publicly, at least — the Arizona Supreme Court’s April 9 decision to reinstate an 1864 law banning abortion in almost all cases, including rape and incest. But that hasn’t always been her view.

In June 2022, Lake called the 1864 Arizona law a “great law” and said she was “thrilled” about its potential implementation. Earlier that same year, she tweeted: “ALL Baby Lives Matter — every single heartbeat is a gift from God & we will never stop fighting to protect life. We must make Arizona a Sanctuary State for the unborn.” A fetal heartbeat generally can be detected by the fourth week of gestation.

But earlier this month, in a video released by her campaign, Lake said the 1864 abortion ban “is out of line with where the people of this state are.” By last weekend, her tune had changed again. Speaking to a publication in Idaho — lots of Arizona voters to woo there — Lake said “unfortunately, the people of our state have said we’re not going to enforce” the 160-year-old ban.

With Republicans now wondering what she really believes, Lake’s abortion waffling may manage to piss off as many voters as possible — a bold but unlikely strategy for electoral success.

Kari Lake compares trans people to dogs

Until that point in her ASU appearance, Lake had spent most of her speech to the young conservatives group — though plenty in attendance were far too old to be in college — trodding less divisive territory, at least among Republicans: complaining about transgender people, whom she suggested were mentally ill while conflating gender identity with sex.

“The stuff you’ve had to endure — not just COVID — just the insanity, where you have to show up in a class and you see someone who’s obviously a man and you have to call them a girl, and you see somebody who’s obviously a girl and you have to call them a boy or you get in trouble. Or you see somebody dressed as a dog and you have to act like they’re a dog or you get in trouble,” Lake ranted. “You know it in your heart of hearts: we all know this is wrong. And we’re not gonna make you put up with this crap much longer. When we get in office we’re gonna change that.”

None of this is as novel as Lake suggests. The term “transgender” was coined in the 1960s and people have challenged the gender binary long before that. But what’s the harm in attacking trans people if it allows you to cast yourself as a defender of women? “I will not stand by and allow mentally ill men who want to play dress up take our womanhood,” Lake said.

Kari Lake: always standing up for women — unless they want an abortion.