Sanders-backed gubernatorial hopeful's past pro-life views clash with current abortion stance
A Democratic gubernatorial hopeful in Maine, who is scheduled to campaign with Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., on Sunday and Monday, has been pitching himself to voters as a pro-choice candidate for governor, but his track record indicates that wasn’t always his stance.
As a state lawmaker, he received a 100% rating from the Maine Right to Life — a designation indicating a voting record wholly consistent with pro-life policies.
Jackson’s reversal demonstrates the fallout of the Dobbs v. Jackson Supreme Court decision that ended a constitutional right to an abortion and made the issue, previously a federal debate, a state-driven consideration.
In their 2022 decision, the Supreme Court ruled that no guarantee of a right to an abortion existed in the Constitution, meaning that individual states would have to decide on a case-by-case basis where to draw the line under what circumstances residents could legally end a pregnancy.
Maine, with Jackson’s help, immediately passed expansions to abortion access, removing restrictions on late-term abortions.
The move prompted praise for Jackson from Planned Parenthood, the country’s largest abortion provider.
"We applaud President Jackson and the 20 state senators and 76 representatives acting in the best interest of Mainers today," Planned Parenthood wrote in a press release.
Just 10 years earlier, Jackson had voted for a bill in 2011 that would have affirmed personhood in the womb.
Two years later, in 2013, Jackson also voted to advance counseling requirements for women considering an abortion, providing them with second-opinion resources designed to explore alternatives to ending a pregnancy.
Both of those efforts failed.
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Even so, they garnered enough attention to put Jackson on the radar of abortion rights groups — and not in a good way.
In 2014, EMILY’s List, a pro-abortion group, launched a six-figure TV ad campaign against Jackson, according to local reporting.
"Politicians should not be involved in a woman’s personal medical decisions about her pregnancy. Period," Emily Cain, Jackson’s primary opponent in 2014, told the Portland Press Herald.
As recently as October 2022, just four months after the Dobbs decision, Jackson told local reporters he was struggling with the issue.
Since declaring his candidacy for governor last May, Jackson seems to have left that struggle behind.
"The right to decide if and when to start a family is fundamental to our freedom and to who we are as Americans. It is a deeply personal decision that should not be made by politicians or justices," Jackson said in a post to Instagram last year.
"On the anniversary of the overturning of Roe v. Wade, I will continue to fight back against efforts to undermine abortion rights and stand up for reproductive freedom in Maine," Jackson wrote.
Sanders, who has supported abortion and has run as a pro-choice candidate for decades, officially endorsed Jackson on Friday, calling him the governor "that working Mainers need."
"Troy is different," Sanders said. "Fighting for the working class of Maine is not something new for Troy. That’s what he has done for his entire life as a logger and as a member of the Maine state legislature. Troy knows what’s going on with the working class of Maine because he’s part of that working class."
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"Troy has also been part of our progressive working class movement from the beginning," he continued. "He has always stood with those of us who understand that health care is a human right, that workers deserve a living wage, and that we need a government that works for all-not just the ultra-wealthy and well-connected."
Notably, Jackson does not list abortion access as a top priority on his campaign website.
In Maine, there is no strict cutoff that prevents abortion at any point in a pregnancy, although some protections apply after viability, around the 24 to 26 week mark. Late-term abortions are permissible with the approval of a licensed physician.
Fox News Digital reached out to Sanders and Jackson's campaign.