Remember when Virginia Gov. Northam claimed he was being taken out of context during that radio show interview in which he seemed to be giving a green light to late-term and possible even post-birth abortion? This was a few days before the scandal about his yearbook page. His spin wasn’t entirely plausible but…at least he tried?

Here’s the new hot property on the progressive left, Beto O’Rourke, being asked how he feels about third-trimester abortions. The questioner notes that late-term abortions often take several days and in many cases is not a medical emergency. There’s really no question what is being asked here: “Are you for or against third-trimester abortions?”

Beto paraphrases the question for anyone who couldn’t hear and leaves out all of the details. “So the question is about abortion and reproductive rights,” he said. “And my answer to you is that that should be a decision that the woman makes about her own body. I trust her,” he adds. Here’s the clip:

Here’s Beto O’Rourke at a campaign event in Cleveland responding to a question about third-trimester abortions: “That should be a decision that the woman makes. I trust her.” pic.twitter.com/nBrlazlMob

— Alexandra DeSanctis (@xan_desanctis) March 18, 2019

This makes Beto part of a small minority of Americans on this issue. As the Daily Wire’s Ryan Saveedra pointed out, a Gallup poll taken last year found that support for third-trimester abortion barely cracked the teens:

Gallup finds that 60 percent of Americans believe abortion generally should be legal during the first three months of pregnancy, known as the first trimester. That support drops by more than half, to 28 percent, once a pregnancy reaches the second trimester; it falls to 13 percent in the third trimester, at which point the fetus is often viable with medical support.

Granted this would be higher in a situation where the mother’s life was in danger but the question left no doubt that was not what was being asked, i.e. do you support third-trimester abortions when it’s not a medical emergency?

I guess Beto’s defenders could claim that he’s giving a generic answer about his stance on abortion. He did rephrase the question. But there isn’t any wiggle room to claim a misunderstanding here. He was asked about third-trimester abortion and then said (twice) that this was his answer to the question he’d been asked, i.e. “my answer to you…”

So is this the new normal for the Democratic Party? Has the extreme statement made by Gov. Northam, which he claimed was taken out of context, shifted the Overton Window? Now that Democrats are flirting with Democratic Socialism and court-packing, I guess this shouldn’t be much of a surprise. But this position is so extreme I think it’s going to cost Democrats. Good luck trying to defend this position in a room that is more representative of America at large than this one was.