Virginia Democrats attack Cuccinelli for comparing abortion to slavery, Civil War - CNN (blog)

Updated 10:06 p.m. ET, 10/17/2013

(CNN) – Virginia gubernatorial candidate Ken Cuccinelli is coming under fire from Virginia Democrats once again for his statements on abortion.

In an interview this week with conservative news organization Newsmax, Cuccinelli responded to criticism about a year-old video in which he said God would impose judgment on the United States for allowing abortion.



Follow @politicalticker

In the interview, Cuccinelli blasted Democratic attacks on his anti-abortion views while comparing abortion to the evils of slavery.

“If you go back to Abraham Lincoln in the Civil War, he looked at the Civil War as a sort of a national penance for slavery; the evil of slavery and letting it go on. And the founders knew how bad it was. We have other things in this country today and abortion is one of them,” the state attorney general told Newsmax.

“It’s certainly one of those things, I want to work us towards a culture of life, where everybody respects life.”

Cuccinelli’s comments “may be his most extreme ever,” the Virginia Democratic Party said in a statement highlighting an NBC4 report on what Cuccinelli said this week and what he said a year ago.

Democratic candidate Terry McAuliffe has focused most of his attacks on Cuccinelli’s conservative views, particularly on abortion. McAuliffe, a businessman and former Democratic National Committee chair, has sought to label Cuccinelli as a “tea party extremist,” whose views are too far to the right for the increasingly purple Virginia.

“Ken Cuccinelli is showing voters who he really is,” Virginia Democrats spokesman Brian Coy said in the statement.

“These extreme, dangerous and offensive statements should have no place in our politics, much less our governor’s mansion.”

With three weeks until the election, McAuliffe leads Cuccinelli in opinion polls by single digits.

UPDATE: A spokesman from the Cuccinelli campaign reached out to CNN with the following comment.

"It's no secret that Ken Cuccinelli is proudly pro life. However, his focus as governor will be to implement his jobs plan which will create 58,000 jobs and ease burdens for middle class families," said. Richard T. Cullen.

–CNN’s Bryan Koenig contributed to this report.