Herschel Walker, the ex-football star-turned-Republican candidate for Senate in Georgia, claims he is 100% pro-life. He has said that Georgia’s six-week abortion ban doesn’t go far enough, preferring a national ban on abortion with “no exceptions.”

Note that I said that Walker claims to be, rather than is, pro-life. That’s because last week, the Daily Beast broke the news that Walker had paid for an ex-girlfriend’s abortion in 2009 — confirmed by a receipt for the procedure, a check he wrote reimbursing her and a signed get-well-soon card. On Friday, in an interview with the New York Times, the anonymous woman said that Walker had urged her to get a second abortion when she became pregnant with his now-10-year-old son. 

These are the facts: Herschel Walkers claims to be pro-life on religious grounds. As such he supports a national ban on abortion, without exception. And yet he wanted his then-girlfriend to have an abortion — and paid for it — because he said he was not ready to raise a child at that time. How does he square that circle?

Pretty easily, it turns out. He simply doesn’t think the same rules ought to apply to him. If a national abortion ban passes, millions of women will lose the ability to make their own healthcare decisions. In states such as Arkansas, Wisconsin and Texas, millions already have. According to an analysis by The New York Times, traveling from a red state for an abortion post-Dobbs costs between $1,300 and $4,800. That’s money that many women don’t have, putting abortion out of reach even if they are victims of rape or incest or if the pregnancy puts their own health in danger. But Herschel Walker, whose net worth is between $25 and $65 million, will have no problem paying for a flight to New York or California or Canada. One set of rules for him, another for everyone else. 

This isn’t the only instance of hypocrisy for Herschel Walker. He’s long spoken out against absentee fathers in the Black community, but during his campaign, it has been revealed that he fathered three children that he did not publicly acknowledge or raise. According to the anonymous woman, Walker hasn’t seen his 10-year-old son in over six years. His other son Christian, a conservative activist, recently tweeted that Walker was not present in his own childhood (and also seemingly confirmed disturbing allegations of domestic abuse made by his mother, Walker’s ex-wife).

Herschel Walker isn’t alone in his hypocrisy — it’s par for the course in his party. 

In July, 74 percent of House Republicans voted against a bill codifying the right to marriage equality. Among them was Rep. Glenn Thompson of Pennsylvania’s 15th district, who attended his gay son’s wedding the very next Friday. Marriage equality for my son, but not for yours.

Last year, 30 GOP senators voted against Joe Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure bill, now they’re turning around and bragging about the money it’s delivering for their states. Scare when it’s time to sow, but more than happy to reap the rewards. 

Republicans talk a big game about law and order, except when it’s time to make sure wealthy tax cheats pay what they owe — then they unanimously oppose increasing funding for the IRS. They want regular people to pay what they owe via the withholding process while business owners get to cheat on their taxes with impunity and the IRS is left too starved for resources to do anything about it.

They had no problem ballooning the federal debt to pay for a $2 trillion tax cut for corporations and the wealthy, then turning around and proposing to fill the gap by cutting Medicare and Social Security benefits. Don’t take my word for it — that’s what all four Republican congressmen gunning to chair the House committee that writes tax laws say they want to do if they take the majority in November. Fiscal responsibility for thee, but not for me. 

In America, we believe in equality under the law. We believe that we are all entitled to equal treatment in the courts, regardless of station or status. But that’s not what Herschel Walker and the GOP believe — they want to create a two-tiered system of justice: one set of rules for themselves and their rich donors, and another for the rest of us. Make of that what you will. 

MILAN SINGH is a first year in Pierson College. Contact him at milan.singh@yale.edu.