Old Stuff

The Infanticide Party

I'll let this speak for itself:

From: The Pro-Life Infonet
Reply-To: Steven Ertelt
Subject: Democratic Presidential Candidates Will Attend NARAL Event
Source: Washington Times; January 15, 2003

Democratic Presidential Candidates Will Attend NARAL Event

Washington, DC -- The six Democratic candidates for president have agreed to appear on the same stage for the first time in the campaign to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion on demand.

The quick agreement by the Democratic candidates to attend the fund-raising dinner next Tuesday reflects the near unanimity of opinion by the presidential candidates in favor of abortion and contrasts with the strong pro-life record accumulated by President Bush.

The six Democrats are attending the event for Naral Pro-Choice America, the pro-abortion group formerly known as the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League, to mark the Roe v. Wade decision.

The dinner is one of a series of events being sponsored by pro-life and pro-abortion groups next week on the anniversary of the narrow ruling of 1973.

"The fact that this is the first major gathering of the announced presidential hopefuls on the Democratic side demonstrates the importance and power of this issue," said Kate Michelman, the president of NARAL. "Frankly, this is a right in great peril, and frankly, I don't think people have taken that seriously enough."

Michelman had said the group invited all six Democrats who have said they are creating presidential exploratory committees and received commitments from all but Howard Dean, the former governor of Vermont. Dean's campaign told the group that the candidate might have a scheduling conflict, but an aide to Dean said that he had cleared his schedule and would be there.

The other Democrats attending are Senator John Edwards of North Carolina; Representative Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri; Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts; Senator Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut; and the Rev. Al Sharpton of New York. All of whom are pro-abortion.

Asked if a similar invitation had been extended to President Bush, Michelman responded: "No, no. He's anti-choice. We wouldn't invite George Bush. No. No."

The six Democrats are expected to share a stage and each will speak, providing the crowd of about 1,500 an opportunity for the first up-close comparison of the campaign styles of these six men seeking to challenge Bush.

Aides to the Democratic candidates argued that the issue of abortion could prove to be unusually effective this year because of the likelihood of retirements on the Supreme Court and pressure on Bush, should they occur while he is president, to appoint a justice who might overturn Roe v. Wade

"It is entirely possible that 'choice' will play a very significant role in this election -- perhaps the biggest in presidential history," said Jim Jordan, the campaign manager for Senator Kerry. "I think there is a growing awareness among women, particularly among younger women, that the right to choose is in real jeopardy."

However, exit polls following the Congressional elections clearly showed that, on the issue of abortion, pro-life candidates not only prevailed but won in landslide numbers. Several winning pro-life candidates in the 2002 elections received anywhere from 65 to 81 percent of the vote of those who cast their ballot based on the issue of abortion.

The dinner may draw attention to the minute differences among the Democratic candidates.

Most notably, Gephardt generally voted pro-life during the 1970s and 80's, and switched his position before he ran for president the first time, in 1988. In Congress, Gephardt has voted in favor of a ban on partial-birth abortions.

Aides to Democrats in rival camps were quick today to offer details of what they described as discrepancies in Gephardt's position, signaling what they said was a line of attack that they were likely to use against the candidate in the year ahead. And Gephardt's aides said today that he would use the platform of next week's dinner to address directly any questions about his position on abortion and try to quell efforts by his rivals to stir opposition to him among abortion advocates.

NARAL officials said they expected to raise $500,000 at the event.

Posted by billw at January 16, 2003 08:26 AM