It isn’t hypocrisy at all


And it probably won’t cost him any votes. It has been discovered that Herschel Walker paid for a girlfriend to get an abortion, in spite of the fact that, on the campaign trail, he has been loudly opposed to abortion for any reason.

A woman who asked not to be identified out of privacy concerns told The Daily Beast that after she and Walker conceived a child while they were dating in 2009 he urged her to get an abortion. The woman said she had the procedure and that Walker reimbursed her for it.

She supported these claims with a $575 receipt from the abortion clinic, a “get well” card from Walker, and a bank deposit receipt that included an image of a signed $700 personal check from Walker.

The woman said there was a $125 difference because she “ball-parked” the cost of an abortion after Googling the procedure and added on expenses such as travel and recovery costs.

Additionally, The Daily Beast independently corroborated details of the woman’s claims with a close friend she told at the time and who, according to the woman and the friend, took care of her in the days after the procedure.

The woman said Walker, who was not married at the time, told her it would be more convenient to terminate the pregnancy, saying it was “not the right time” for him to have a child. It was a feeling she shared, but what she didn’t know was that Walker had an out-of-wedlock child with another woman earlier that same year.

This won’t even cause a hiccup in his campaign. The thing to realize is that anti-abortion advocates aren’t actually so much anti-abortion as they are anti-women’s autonomy. This abortion was OK because a man blessed it. What would get them outraged is if a woman aborted a man’s unborn child without his permission. Permission granted by a man? Stomp that fetus!

His potential Republican colleagues are probably ready to high-five him and call him a moral exemplar. Even his record of domestic violence doesn’t trouble the Republican base, because that’s simply a man exhibiting his dominion over his wife. Perfectly fine.

Comments

  1. says

    While there’s considerable truth to what PZ says, it’s an impossible position to take publicly. Walker has repeatedly said that abortion, under any circumstances, should be prosecuted as murder. Not saying it will directly cost him a lot of votes, but it makes difficulties for his campaign.

  2. raven says

    The three main sacraments of the fundie xians are hate, lies, and hypocrisy.
    Their two minor sacraments are greed and ignorance.
    Together they make up the Five Pillars of fundie xianity.

    Herschel Walker is merely following the sacraments of his religion, he has the lies and hypocrisy ones down well.

    Some fundie xian cohorts have higher rates of abortions than the general population.

  3. whheydt says

    I saw a news report this morning that Walker is suing the Daily Beast over the story. Given the available testimony and documentation, it looks like he’ll get his ass handed to him.

  4. birgerjohansson says

    Hypocrisy?
    Florida was hit by a hurricane.
    All Florida Republicans in the house have voted against federal hurricane relief.
    I don’t recall what Florida Senator Rick Scott aka Skeletor said about the issue, but I assume he also opposed it.

  5. says

    This won’t even cause a hiccup in his campaign.

    This already isn’t true. https://www.wsj.com/articles/herschel-walkers-georgia-senate-campaign-scrambled-by-allegations-about-past-behavior-11664912481

    The thing to realize is that anti-abortion advocates aren’t actually so much anti-abortion as they are anti-women’s autonomy.

    This is true, but the Walker campaign is denying that it happened for a reason. And not all of his support is from anti-abortion advocates.

    His son coming out against him will matter too.

    Of course the GOP is rallying around his candidacy–utterly unscrupulous scum. https://www.politico.com/news/2022/10/04/republicans-rally-around-walker-00060278

  6. says

    The son’s video rant is going viral and will probably do some real damage.

    Walker’s handlers already thought they had shaken the skeletons out of his closet, but it turns out he was lying to them too. It’s like lying is the guy’s hobby.

  7. microraptor says

    I heard some speculation this morning that after Walker’s son’s rant, big-name Republicans are quietly abandoning Walker, seeing him as no longer a solid investment.

  8. raven says

    Herschel Walker’s Son Unleashes On Him After Abortion Report
    https://www.huffpost.com › entry › herschel-walker-so…

    20 hours ago — Christian Walker said the Republican U.S. Senate candidate “left us to bang a bunch of women” and “threatened to kill us.” Josephine Harvey.

    I had no idea that Walker had an adult son much less that he had a lot to say.

    Doesn’t look like a happy family at all.
    More GOP/fundie xian family values.

  9. birgerjohansson says

    Unwritten rule:
    “It is all right when it is Republicans doing it”
    “Anything that proves me wrong is fake news”.
    “My alternative facts are better than your ordinary facts”
    “Truthiness is better than mere truth”

  10. says

    Just to be clear, Christian Walker is not a good guy … he’s a raving right wing “anti-woke” pro-Trump pro-DeSantis pro-Big Lie homophobic bigoted loon who happens to be a gay Black man.

  11. F.O. says

    Dana Loesch: “I don’t care if Herschel Walker paid to abort endangered baby eagles. I want control of the Senate.”

    https://twitter.com/patriottakes/status/1577442950044426240

    That’s why rational arguments fail: they don’t care about the arguments they make, they are only excuses.
    Faith, science, facts, compassion, nothing matters.

    What they want is power (or to feel like they are in the team with power) and that’s it.

    That’s really the start and the end of it and the best way to understand their actions, and the actions of any other authoritarian.

  12. says

    @#12, F.O.:

    You’re not going far enough — just “they want power” isn’t enough to explain Republicans (or Tories); it applies to a lot of Democrats as well. They also want to use that power to specifically make people suffer, or at least uncomfortable. If they just wanted to be in power, they would go out and vote and then push for stuff that proclaimed their power without being particularly malevolent, like renaming things after right-wingers or putting up statues, and they wouldn’t encounter real opposition. They could even actually push for beneficial stuff that was — metaphorically speaking — heavily stamped with “hey, remember, the Republicans did this, you should be grateful to us for delivering this desirable thing which our opposition refused to give you when they held power”. Instead they pick issues which will specifically harm people or will intrude into people’s lives in ways which cause discomfort without delivering any benefit. The whole “owning the libs” mindset isn’t just the pursuit of power, it’s the pursuit of harm.

    Which is why it has been so profoundly irritating that so many Democrats have spent the last 3 decades chasing right-wing votes and proclaiming bipartisanship to be a high virtue. Any sane person wants the Republicans stopped, not to give them a hand in controlling things. Yet here we are with Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden as successive nominees, two people who ought to have been jettisoned for voting for the Iraq war and the PATRIOT Act.