Kari Lake accidentally said abortion should be legal

As you may know Kari Lake— the Donald Trump-backed Republican nominee for governor of Arizona and a 2020 draft refuser — as the person who acted single-handedly killed the expression “BDE.” Now she’s also become the GOP contestant who accidentally said abortion should be legal.

On a Tuesday interview On KTAR radio, host Mike Broomhead asked Lake about exceptions for rape and incest, and she responded with a ridiculous no-answer that included the oopsie: “It would be really wonderful if abortion was rare and legal – like they used to say, remember? Seldom but surely, seldom but surely, I think they said,” Lake said said. “It would be really wonderful if it turned out that way. But they don’t want that, Mike. They don’t want to be rare, they want to be sure.”

A federal judge recently ruled that a Abortion ban in Arizona from 1901 – more than a decade before it became a state – can be effective. The ban criminalizes doctors who perform abortions unless it is necessary to save the life of the pregnant person.

A spokesman for Lake said The Associated Press on Wednesday that she didn’t mean to say abortion should be legal and that she wasn’t calling for changes to state abortion laws, which is objectively hilarious for a Republican campaign to say.

“It went from rare and legal to having an abortion to having a baby,” Lake said during the interview, using the L-word for the second time and citing disinformation. “That’s not right. And now they want to make someone who’s pro-life seem radical. I’m not radical. We’re not radical because we’re anti-life… I’m not afraid to stand up and say I am against life.” (Actually Kari, the government endanger people’s health and forcing people to give birth against their will is radical politics. Hope that helps!)

Lake was apparently trying to refer to Bill Clinton’s famous 1990s phrase that abortion “safe, legal and rare”—a line advocating to stop using it because it is stigmatizingand also because Self-administered abortions with pills can be very sure, even in states where abortion is illegal. Pro-choice Democrats now overwhelmingly believe that politicians have no place in reproductive health, but Lake doesn’t want to discuss that — preferring to refer to talking points from three decades ago.

Six out of 10 Registered Arizona voters say abortion should be legal in most cases, and Lake is currently conducting a poll neck and neck with pro-choice Democratic candidates Katie Hobbs.

So it is remarkable that Lake don’t tell in the interview whether it supports the 1901 Act or this instead 15 week ban that current Gov. Doug Ducey (R) signed earlier this year. “I want to see where this goes,” she said. “I don’t know now. I’m confused. We seem to have two laws, and there seems to be some controversy as to which law it will be.” (Your Arizona colleague, Republican Blake Mastersrecently running for Senate turned off from his website that he supported fetal personality that would ban abortion nationwide, replacing it with support for banning abortion later in pregnancy.)

Aside from not wanting to say “legally,” Lakes spokesman Ross Trumble said, said the AP that either the total ban or the 15-week law would fit Lake’s definition of abortion as “rare but safe.”

“‘Rarely but certainly’ would apply to whatever the current law means,” Trumble said.

It seems difficult to be both persistent and wishy-washy, but that seems to be Lake’s whole thing. That, or she supports a total abortion ban but is too stupid to say that five weeks before Election Day considering voters said abortion rights a hot topic this year.