Today, the National Review reported that Sen. Mark Pryor (D-AR) has avoided taking a clear position on Sen. Lindsey Graham’s (R-SC) bill “which would ban abortions after 20 weeks except in cases of rape, ‘incest against a minor,’ or the endangerment of the mother’s life.”
So on Monday evening, I skittered across the Ohio Clock room to ask the senator if he’d had any more thoughts on the bill. He looked at me, sort of smiled, said nothing, and kept walking. I walked after him for a bit, giving him time to answer. He didn’t acknowledge me at all beyond his smirk-ish facial expression, and certainly didn’t provide any insight into his views on late-term abortion. He did say ‘Hi guys’ to a few men standing in the hall between the Senate chamber and the rotunda. Then, munching peanut-butter M&Ms, he disappeared toward the House side of the building. A request for comment sent to his office was unanswered at press time.
While Pryor has been silent about his current position on abortion, during Pryor’s 1998 campaign for Arkansas’s Attorney General he told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette: “I am pro-choice.”
Pryor has made it clear that he is pro-choice. His silence on the issue now seems to be more motivated by political calculation than conviction.