Playing to the crowd.
Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ) at CPAC is
doing his damnedest to pretend he's another tea partier, bashing Jeb Bush and his "elite" establishment roots and declaring that he's with them in the War on Women. He's totally "pro-life" don't you know, when pro-life means preventing abortion and also withholding potentially lifesaving healthcare for women.
But Chris Christie New Jersey governor rather than Chris Christie presidential candidate sang a very different tune.
In 2010 Christie vetoed $7.5 million in funding for family planning clinics, including Planned Parenthood, saying the money was duplicative and the state couldn't afford it. He went on to issue similar vetoes four more times, prompting six clinics to close and cut back hours while triggering a reduction in the number of HIV tests, breast exams and other clinical services given to women who visit the centers. The $7.5 million was a long-standing item in the state budget, and the funds were eligible for a 9-to-1 match if the women who used the clinics qualified for Medicaid.
Over the years Christie was repeatedly asked about the vetoes and he repeatedly cited that this was a financial decision and not one based on his pro-life beliefs. The veto statements never mentioned abortion—just money. […]
Back in New Jersey, vetoing Planned Parenthood funding was most assuredly not an example of his "strong and resolute" pro-life record. In fact, the $7.5 million annual funds weren't even to be used to perform abortions. As Christie told NJTV's Michael Aron in 2013, when he was running for reelection in largely pro-choice New Jersey, this was solely about saving cash. […]
"That's not the issue," Christie said. "The issue is duplication of state services in a state budget that when I came in here that was incredibly, incredibly distressed."
Those vetoes were all about the money, all about Governor Christie being the tough and responsible fiscal hawk who didn't want to pick on women (yeah, right) but had to make a tough choice, five times between low-income women getting health care and well, something else. Maybe road crews to shut down lanes on bridges.
But Candidate Christie at CPAC? "I ran as a pro-life candidate in 2009 unapologetically, spoke at the rally on the steps of the statehouse. […] And I vetoed Planned Parenthood funding five times out of the New Jersey budget." New Jersey has finally seen their governor clearly, giving him the lowest approval ratings of his tenure. But he doesn't need New Jersey anymore, so now he's perfectly free to go full-on War on Women.