It’s been a transformational journey for Bill Walker, Alaska’s former governor who hopes to be governor once more. On abortion, Walker has been a shapeshifter, making a 180-degree pivot on the issue.
In 2010, Bill Walker answered questions for Alaska Right to Life. He was firmly against abortion, he said.
He also answered questions from Alaska Family Action, and he promised he would promote laws to limit abortion and Medicaid funding of abortion.
Amanda Coyne, who ran the popular AmandaCoyne.com blog back in 2014, had already spotted the evolution of the Walker abortion stance.
“Bill Walker told us everything we wanted to hear,” then-Alaska Right to Live Executive Director Chris Kurka told Coyne, in a story published in her blog in 2014.
The first time he ran for governor in 2010, Walker also said he supported a constitutional amendment that would make it clear that abortion was not a fundamental right. He also said he supported a constitutional amendment to change the way that judges are selected.
This year, he opposes a constitutional convention that could actually tackle those issues.
Although he lost in 2010, Walker ran as a no-party candidate in 2014 and was still pro-life. But by that time, he said that he would not push the abortion agenda and that social issues were not his focus.
Eight years later, Walker is a completely different man. He filled out the Juneau Pro-Choice Coalition questionnaire and stated, emphatically, that he is solidly pro-abortion.
Even on the question of whether or not parents should know that their daughters are having an abortion, Walker was a big “no”:
“I FAVOR NO RESTRICTIONS. The Alaska Supreme Court ruled that parental notification is a violation of privacy rights and equal protection guarantees made in the Alaska Constitution. We will always defend and uphold our Constitution,” he answered.
The pro-abortion group asked Walker if, as an elected official, he will publicly support Planned Parenthood, an organization that provides abortion and pushes gender ideology at all of its locations, including providing gender transitioning hormones for those who want to appear to be a different gender. Walker said, yes, he will publicly support Planned Parenthood.
Unlike his opponents Gov. Mike Dunleavy and Les Gara, Walker has switched his views on abortion completely. Dunleavy has been consistently pro-life, and Gara has been consistently pro-abortion, but Walker has morphed from pro-life to pro-abortion.
Walker is following a pattern of walking back his position. He was in favor of income taxes, and now he is against them. He was all-in on making Alaska a debt trap for China, with his gasline deals with the communists, and now he says he would not do that again. He favored and signed the soft-on-crime bill, SB-91, but he’s since had second thoughts.
And with abortion, as with so many other positions, he has has now embraced the platform of the Democrats — at least on paper.
The election for governor is Nov. 8. Walker is polling at about 23%, according to the latest Dittman Research numbers available from this week. He has teamed up with Democrat Les Gara in his campaigning, hoping that one of them will beat Gov. Mike Dunleavy.
