Prominent transgender voice and California GOP gubernatorial candidate Caitlyn Jenner has rankled pro-choice voters amid the ongoing recall election for Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom, standing up Tuesday for Texas’ right to restrict abortions.
“I am for a woman’s right to choose; I am also for a state having the ability to make their own laws, and so I support Texas in that decision,” Jenner told CNN’s “New Day.”
“That’s their decision. I’m O.K. with that.”
Jenner added California is not going to go the way of a red state like Texas on abortion rights.
“As for being a woman’s right to choose, I don’t see any changes in our laws in California in the future,” she said.
Texas has passed a six-week limit on pregnancy for most abortions, and the Supreme Court recently declined to step in the way of that law in a 5-4 ruling that saw only moderate Chief Justice John Roberts side with the three ideologically liberal justices on the panel.
“I think they have the right in their state to do what they want to do,” Jenner said, echoing a position of former President Donald Trump, who said firmly abortion is a state’s rights issue and not a constitutional one.
“Now, do I agree with the decision or not? No. To be honest with you, I actually probably do not agree with the decision, but I agree they have the right to make their own decision,” she added.
Roe v. Wade is a landmark 1970s Supreme Court decision that protected a pregnant woman’s liberty to choose to have an abortion without excessive government restriction, but that precedent is in direct conflict with constitutionally written law protecting a state’s right to make its own laws.
Author and pro-life activist Lila Rose objected to Jenner playing both sides of the abortion debate, tweeting, “You can’t have it both ways, @Caitlyn_Jenner. No state has the right to deprive preborn children of their right to live, California included. A woman’s right to choose doesn’t include the right to kill a child.”
The Palmer Report tweeted a rebuke of even hearing from a Republican California gubernatorial candidate, “Caitlyn Jenner is polling at 1%, a completely irrelevant candidate, and yet CNN is giving her a feature interview. Unfortunately, the lesson the media learned from 2016 and 2020 is that elections are reality shows – and that’s the worst possible lesson they could have learned.”
Just watching CNN viewers object to a GOP candidate getting an interview left conservative national security analyst Brigitte Gabriel amused, “I do thoroughly enjoy watching liberal heads explode every time Caitlyn Jenner defends something Republicans have done while interviewing on liberal media outlets.”
