What a Difference a Decade Makes: Levy the Shape Shifter from Pro-choice to Opposing Abortion.
Republican Leora Levy told the Connecticut Post at the 2012 Republican National Convention when asked about abortion, “I believe in a woman’s right to make that decision for herself.” One of three Republicans competing in the August 9th primary for the party’s U.S. Senate nomination, Levy declared a decade ago, “Abortion is really not at the top of anybody’s list.”
The Greenwich Republican sees abortion as a powerful wedge issue in her race against party-endorsed candidate Themis Klarides and Fairfield Republican Peter Lumaj. Truth has lost its meaning for Levy, who was a prominent supporter of Jeb Bush during his 2016 presidential campaign before becoming an enthusiastic booster of Donald Trump. who Levy characterized as “vulgar” and “ill-mannered.”
On Monday, in the aftermath of Friday’s Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade, Levy’s campaign proclaimed her “the only pro-life candidate in the race….” That will come as news to Lumaj. Like Levy, he also opposes legal abortions for women. Klarides, who served in the state House of Representative for 22 years, is unequivocally pro-choice and does not support a parental notification law for minors seeking abortions.
The stench of opportunism pervades Levy’s crowing over the Dobbs decision. The Republican National Committee member wrote:
| “Today the Supreme Court decision has returned America to valuing, respecting and protecting Life. Following decades of babies’ lives being wrongfully extinguished, the Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and Dobbs v. Jackson marks a return to SCOTUS Justices upholding the Constitution and a rejection of the judicial activism of the last 50 years.” |
| Levy continued, ” Unfortunately we cannot turn back time and ensure a chance for life to the 63 million babies who never had one, but we can celebrate the end of progressive pressure to abandon the Constitution and our American values.” |
None of these thoughts appeared to have occurred to Levy a decade ago. If abortion was vexing her last summer, Levy did not say much about it in her brief and unsuccessful campaign for a special election for the State Senate. Broadcast debates among the three Republicans running to challenge Democratic incumbent Richard Blumenthal ought to be memorable, with a stage littered with each other’s quotations.
Published June 27, 2022.