To the relief of sex offenders throughout the state, Arizona Democratic gubernatorial candidate Fred DuVal, during a Tuesday forum at Redemption Church in Gilbert, said that, in the words of an unbylined Washington Free Beacon story, "he is opposed to mandating parental consent for a girl as young as 14 years old to get an abortion."
This is a non-story in the establishment press, which made it a mission to take out two GOP U.S. Senate candidates two years ago over abortion-related remarks with far less real-world impact. Based on a search on "DuVal parental consent" (not in quotes) at the Arizona Republic, the paper hasn't done a story specifically noting DuVal's outrageous position — even though it did manage to notice that DuVal, like Ed FitzGerald, the Democrat who is running for Governor in Ohio, has been known to drive without a valid driver's license, though far less often or brazenly.
Specifically, via Life News (bolds are mine):
Arizona Governor Candidate Fred DuVal: Okay for 14-Year-Old to Get Abortion Without Parental Consent
Arizona gubernatorial candidate Fred DuVal is coming under fire for saying he doesn’t think a 14-year-old should get parental consent before having an abortion. Here’s what he said during an interview:
Host: “Notarized parental consent? Parental notification?”
Fred Duval: “[sigh] Uh, consent, no. Because I believe that then gives the choice of reproductive freedom to the parents and not to the expectant mother and I believe the expectant mother has that…”
Host: “And she’s 14…”
DuVal: “Yeah.”
Responding to the comments, Gail Gitcho, communications director for the Republican Governor’s Association, said she found DuVal’s remarks off-putting.
“It is both disturbing and troubling that Fred DuVal, as a father, would say that parents have no right to consent to what their children decide to do with their bodies,” Gitcho said. “To actually say, ‘yeah,’ a 14-year-old girl should be able to get an abortion without parental consent is so far out of the mainstream, it is shocking. Years of polling demonstrate that Americans – Republican, Democrat and in-between – believe parents have a right to know and to consent to what their adolescent children are doing, specifically when it comes to this very serious issue. DuVal is too extreme for Arizona.”
I'm not so sure that the "no consent needed" position is really outside the mainstream of leftist thought. If there's a record of any Democrat criticizing DuVal's position, I haven't seen it.
Beyond that, the Arizona Republic's Linda Valdez devoted an entire column to the gubernatorial candidates' abortion stances on Friday. That would be three days after DuVal's stated opposition to any form of parental consent. Here's what she wrote about DuVal's abortion position as stated in a gubernatorial debate:
To his credit, DuVal went further: "We need to stop the erosion of women's reproductive choices ... Doug and I disagree on this."
Apparently the candidate doesn't grasp, or doesn't care about, the difference between a "woman" and a "child."
Almost certainly knowing what DuVal said at Redemption Church, Valdez chose to ignore it, even though one could reasonably infer in the context of her column that she's a big "no consent needed" fan, and thus admirer of the candidate's position. But she know that many others aren't, and apparently didn't want to hurt DuVal's dwindling chances at achieving a November 4 victory.
A Google News search at 10:40 PM ET on "Fred DuVal abortion" (not in quotes, past seven days, sorted by date with duplicates) returned eight items. Other than Valdez's column, the results are all from center-right blogs and outlets.
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.
