A male politician who understands abortion

Cory Booker, campaigning to be the Democratic nominee for president, has been very vocal in support of abortion choice. He spoke because Georgia is close to having a “fetal heartbeat” law – banning abortion once the heartbeat of the fetus can be detected, which can happen well before a woman knows she is pregnant.

I’m not going to repeat Booker’s words, instead I’ll note the response of Melissa McEwan of Shakesville:

OMG let us count the many things that Booker gets right here! 1. I have never heard a male presidential candidate argue to codify abortion rights into law and that is SO GREAT. 2. He refers to abortion as a medical decision. 3. He says he will fight for a woman's right to make *her own* medical decisions and doesn't couch it in some bullshit language about how abortion is a decision between a woman, her doctor, her family, her pastor, etc. He makes clear that he regards it as *her* decision. 4. He acknowledges that abortion restrictions undermine women's bodily autonomy. 5. He notes that many abortion restrictions happen on the state level.

YES. This is a male politician, at long last, who I feel like I can trust actually understands the abortion fight.

In another post McEwan likes that Booker links abortion access to fair elections. Again in response to the Georgia efforts, Booker said:

Make no mistake: This is a direct result of an undemocratic election. If we had fair elections with fair district lines, Georgia's leadership would look a lot different, and the women of Georgia would not be relegated to second-class citizenhood.

Booker made that connection because last November Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp rigged the election so that he could beat out Stacy Abrams to become governor.

Laura Clawson of Daily Kos reported that Booker has announced a very strong statement on gun reform, stronger than the other Dem candidates. The proposal including a call to require licenses to own a gun. I like what he says.

I have not chosen a favorite among the swarm of Democratic candidates. However, Booker is in my top four. The others are Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, and Julian Castro. None of them are white males.

Yet, headlines still ponder whether a white male is a safer choice against the nasty guy. Kos of Daily Kos looked at the raw vote totals for presidential candidates over the last 20 years. The highest vote getters were the black man and the woman.