We met at the senator’s house in Charles River Square before dawn and took off by car on a day that would include 23 campaign stops, winding up at Bridgewater State College (now University). Spaulding, trying to confront his elusive, better-known opponent, showed up for an impromptu debate, the most impassioned part of which involved abortion.
Spaulding favored legalizing abortion, which was then outlawed in Massachusetts and nearly every other state. Kennedy, in a booming voice that would become more familiar to voters in future years, lashed out at Spaulding, Referring to adoption, he said, “Don’t tell me there’s not enough love in the world to take care of all the babies that are born.’’ I had never seen him so worked up on an issue.
Earlier that month on “Meet the Press,’’ he had asserted that a “fetus has some rights,’’ including “the right to life.’’
Kennedy went on to defeat Spaulding handily. But the dynamics of the abortion issue were beginning to change. That same year, New York passed legislation allowing abortions up to the 24th week of a pregnancy. Colorado had legalized abortion in 1967. In 1973, the Supreme Court’s decision in Roe v. Wade established abortion rights nationally.
According to Kennedy biographer Adam Clymer, Kennedy’s first recorded support for federally funded abortions occurred during debate of Senate legislation that would have banned such funding. In Kennedy’s autobiography, “True Compass,’’ the word “abortion’’ does not even appear in the index. Nor did the Globe’s biography, “Last Lion,’’ address his change on the issue. But by 1987, he was an outspoken pro-choice advocate, warning that the Supreme Court nomination of Robert Bork would lead to “a land in which women would be forced into back-alley abortions.’’
