Colorado congressional candidate and sitting State Rep. Richard Holtorf ® received a tough grilling this week at the hands of local 9News anchor Kyle Clark over his apparent hypocrisy when it comes to abortion rights.
Holtorf made headlines back in January when he defended paying for his girlfriend’s abortion, despite being an adamant pro-life lawmaker and abortion critic. “Anti-abortion GOP lawmaker praises the impact of the abortion he paid for,” read the headline of a local report by Clark from the beginning of the year.
To his credit, Holtorf sat down with Clark to discuss the issue.
“Why do you seek to deny [the right to an abortion] to other women?” Clark pressed.
“Let me, let me — I don’t, I don’t,” Holtorf replied.
“You have voted to restrict abortion access,” Clark shot back.
“And I have. And I’m a pro-life person. I think you should try to choose life every time. But there are exceptions. And there are times when you need abortion. Abortion is a medical procedure,” declared Holtorf.
There are exceptions, like when it’s inconvenient for the rich and powerful. Other people should (be compelled by law to) choose life every time.
So, pro choice then. Come on “pro-life” people if you make exceptions you are pro choice. Abortion should be legal and accessible to women who need it, birth control too.
The Only Moral Abortion Is My Abortion.
reuse as needed.
Edit = Here’s a link to the author’s blog post: https://joycearthur.com/abortion/the-only-moral-abortion-is-my-abortion/
Thanks to Cosmic Turtle.
The Atlantic article is paywalled.
Here’s a link to the author’s blog post: https://joycearthur.com/abortion/the-only-moral-abortion-is-my-abortion/
Here’s a link to the author’s blog post: https://joycearthur.com/abortion/the-only-moral-abortion-is-my-abortion/
I apologize
“And I have. And I’m a pro-life person. I think you should try to choose life every time. But there are exceptions. And there are times when you need abortion. Abortion is a medical procedure,” declared Holtorf.
“Is one of the exceptions when Richard Holtorf is the father?” Clark demanded.
I’m a pro-life person … there are times when you need an abortion.
That’s pro-choice my man.
It’s surprising how often “pro-life” people turn out to be pro-choice when pressed a little on the realities of people’s lives. They seem to maintain the pro-life stance only through a refusal to think about difficult situations - which makes no sense since the whole debate is precisely about difficult situations.
And they commonly just don’t seem to understand what pro-choice means. They think it means being someone who just loves abortions and thinks they’re great and unproblematic and everyone should get one. They don’t realize there are no such people, because they’ve never actually asked and listened, or given it any thought.
Holtorf: That’s just a story. What’s more important is the policy.
The policy is the whole fucking problem! His hypocrisy is an issue because, even with a complete lack of any ability to empathize with different people in different circumstances (which I assume as a default from right-wingers), he ought to understand this situation because it did happen to him. Yet he just doesn’t care. Christ, what an asshole.
This quote pissed me off. I’m fucking pro choice AF and this to me just says this interview wasn’t anything but to make him feel and look stupid and strengthen identity politics. It is gross. A real thoughtful response would have GRASPED onto that admittance that it is a medical procedure and point out how the law has hindered necessary medical treatment for fear of courts deeming it “illegal” because now politicians with power and monetary motivations get to decide what is medically necessary and not anyone with education in medicine or science even.
Grab those “liberal” threads they tried to deny is reality and pull it to the forefront don’t just butt heads with stupid fucking onelines that could make a headline.
That’s pointless. You could get them to admit that pro-choice is the only fair and rational position, but then they’d just go and vote for more restrictions on abortion because that’s what gets them re-elected.
You have to play hardball with the modern Republican party. Embarass them and energize Democrats to replace them. There’s no reasoning with them.
I’m not talking reasoning with him. My point is that this is identity politics journalism and not even the core point. There is so much hypocrisy in the anti-choice crowd and making one look like an idiot isn’t going to change their minds.
Abortion access is also not a thing all democrats care about, or something all Republicans care about either for that matter. Which is wild as this actually impacts the entire country, especially every person able to conceive. It is crucial we continue to discuss and drive the point home that it is a medical procedure that denying or restricting access costs lives. Don’t give them that inch that sometimes it’s different and is murder, it’s not Schroeder’s cat on if it’s a fetus or a baby. A journalist can call him out on his hypocrisy while shutting down his rhetoric as well.
But this is just look at this pro-life hypocrite guys. Can you believe it we found another one! Add it to the pile. This isn’t teaching anyone, the public, anything. I thought that was the point of journalism and the free press.
I take great offense at the it’s pointless rhetoric. It is never pointless, you don’t have to convince him or change his mind but you CAN and should strive to change the minds of people listening. We don’t form our opinions in a vacuum.
I want to agree with you, but… We have decades of that just not working.
Anyone able to be persuaded by what you’re describing would have been persuaded by the obvious hypocrisy of the answer itself.
Mockery is a rhetorical device that can be persuasive, and we don’t always need to be nice to people when their open hypocrisy is destroying lives.
Because like most republicans, he’s a hypocrite.
Nah, you always find the strange ones that actually practice what they preach. They’re rare but they do exist.
I noticed this is not a Sinclair owned Network. I imagine that’s the only reason they were able to ask this question.
For those unfamiliar with Sinclair, here is just one of their shitty tactics:
“This is extremely dangerous to our democracy.”
And then they did it AGAIN last week.
Sinclair leaps in to attack Biden’s mental fitness while Trump has spluttering incoherent speeches.
