LifeNews.com View: Pro-Life Voters Must Back McCain to Stop Abortion
by Steven Ertelt
For pro-life voters, the stakes in the presidential election next month couldn't be more clear. For 35 years, the pro-life community has been trying to overturn the infamous Roe v. Wade decision that allowed abortions throughout pregnancy for any reason. Restoring legal protection for unborn children state by state has always been a pro-life goal and a precursor to a human life amendment to restore protection for women and children nationally. As others pro-life leaders have articulated so well, the next president will have the ability to change the fate of abortion for decades. Although there are detractors who deny President Bush's pro-life record, his greatest achievement on the pro-life front is the appointment of two Supreme Court judges -- who have already reversed one Supreme Court precedent when it comes to abortion and will likely reverse another. We're now hopefully just one vote away from reversing Roe and giving states a chance to protect unborn children once again. The day is coming that abortion will be no more. We're right around the corner and that light at the end of the tunnel is getting brighter and brighter. But, we could lose this battle in one fell swoop this November if we don't do our part to elect a pro-life president. If we don't unite behind Senator John McCain and prevent the election of Barack Obama, we could face 35 more years of legalized abortion. Full story at LifeNews.com
Catholic Group Says Barack Obama Record Proves He Won't Reduce Abortions
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- A leading pro-life Catholic group has released an urgent member to Catholic voters who sincerely want to reduce abortions. The Fidelis Center for Law & Policy says Barack Obama's record and stance on the issues proves he will not reduce abortions if elected president. The memo outlines a series of statements and facts taken from Obama's public record dealing with the issues of life. "The protection of innocent human life" is "of fundamental concern," Brian Burch, the head of Fidelis, which is behind the popular web site CatholicVote.com, told LifeNews.com. "Catholics deserve to know exactly where each of the candidates stand on these issues," he explained. "We encourage every Catholic to distribute our memo throughout their dioceses and particularly to their local pastor or priest." The memo points out Obama's position that he supports unlimited abortions throughout pregnancy for any reason. It highlighted his much-criticized votes in the Illinois legislature against measures to provide adequate medical care for newborns who survive failed abortions. Full story at LifeNews.com
Polls Show Race Still Tightening, Obama Leads by 3, Some Still Undecided
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- The national poll released on Wednesday continue to show a tightening presidential race and are increasingly lowering the lead Barack Obama has and narrowing it down to about three percent. One poll shows a large block of undecided voters and an opportunity for a victory for John McCain. The Investor's Business Daily tracking poll, which was the most accurate during the 2004 elections, shows Obama leading 46.9 percent to 43.9 percent for McCain and 9.2 percent still undecided. That represents a gain of .2 percent from yesterday's tracking numbers for McCain and a drop for Obama of .8 percent. Obama has been unable to crack 48 percent -- yet alone the 50 percent mark for an assured victory as the number of undecided voters has remained at 9 percent or higher for weeks. Should those voters break solidly for McCain, as they are appearing to do now, the Arizona senator could find himself with a narrow victory. IBD shows Obama still leads by 5 to 6 points among Independents, but 18% of them remain undecided as do 13 percent of Catholic voters. Meanwhile, the Rasmussen Reports daily tracking poll shows significant movement in McCain's direction. It has Obama attracting 50% of the vote nationwide while McCain has 47 percent. One percent (1%) of voters prefer a third-party option and 2% are undecided. Full story at LifeNews.com
Pro-Life Group Issues Senate Endorsements in Kentucky, Georgia, North Carolina
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- The National Right to Life political action committee has issued endorsements for Senate candidates in three states who face difficult election contests. The endorsements include incumbent pro-life senators Mitch McConnell in Kentucky, Saxby Chambliss in Georgia and Elizabeth Dole in North Carolina. The pro-life group sent letters to all three candidates thanking them for their pro-life voting record and told LifeNews.com about the abortion contrasts in their races. "Senator Dole has maintained a perfect, 100 percent pro-life voting record," NRLC political director Karen Cross said about the North Carolina senator. About her opponent, Cross said "Democrat Kay Hagan favors continuation of the current policy of allowing abortion for any reason." Cross said the same differences are seen in the Georgia race, where NRLC thanked Chambliss for his "exemplary 100 percent pro-life voting record throughout your entire six-year term in the U.S. Senate." On the other hand, Chambliss opponent Jim Martin takes a pro-abortion view. And in Kentucky, NRLC praised the Senate minority leader McConnell for always voting pro-life and noted his opponent, Bruce Lunsford, favors unlimited abortions. Full story at LifeNews.com
States Didn't Put Women in Jail for Abortions Before Roe, Won't if Overturned
by Clarke D. Forsythe
The political claim that women were or will be prosecuted or jailed under abortion laws—has been made so frequently by Planned Parenthood, NARAL, and NOW over the past 40 years that it has become an urban legend. It shows the astonishing power of contemporary media to make a complete falsehood into a truism. For 30 years, abortion advocates have claimed—without any evidence and contrary to the well-documented practice of ALL 50 states—that women were jailed before Roe and would be jailed if Roe falls (or if state abortion prohibitions are reinstated). This political claim is not an abstract question that is left to speculation—there is a long record of states treating women as the second victim of abortion in the law that can be found and read. To state the policy in legal terms, the states prosecuted the principal (the abortionist) and did not prosecute someone who might be considered an accomplice (the woman) in order to more effectively enforce the law against the principal. And that will most certainly be the state policy if the abortion issue is returned to the states. There are “only two cases in which a woman was charged in any State with participating in her own abortion”: from Pennsylvania in 1911 and from Texas in 1922. There is no documented case since 1922 in which a woman has been charged in an abortion in the United States. Full story at LifeNews.com
Supreme Court Justice Ginsburg: Roe v. Wade Went Too Far on Abortion
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- In an amazing admission, pro-abortion Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg says the Roe v. Wade case that allowed virtually unlimited abortions throughout pregnancy went too far. She admitted that the sweeping decision made it an easy target for critics. In the conversation with Princeton University Provost Christopher Eisgruber, Ginsburg also mentioned her favorite part of the Constitution as the due process section of the 14th Amendment -- an irony given her pro-abortion stance. The conversation between the high court judge and Eisgruber came last week, according to Town Topics, a weekly newspaper devoted to all things Princeton. At the Richardson Auditorium, Ginsburg said the decision in Roe to topple the pro-life laws in states across the nation "wasn't a big surprise" -- though she admitted she was surprised at "how far the Court had gone." "I think the Court bit off more than it could chew," she said, according to Town Topics, and explained that she thought the high court left little room for state legislatures to limit abortions. "There would have been an opportunity for dialogue with state legislatures" to "reduce restrictions on access to abortion" had the ruling been written differently. Full story at LifeNews.com
Faith in Public Life Ad Downplays Abortion in Voting, Denies Abortion Decline
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- When is a pro-life advertisement not really a pro-life ad when it comes to the issue of abortion? When the ad downplays the importance of abortion as a voting topic and distorts the success of pro-life efforts to reduce abortions by claiming to has real solutions. Faith in Public Life has begun running an interesting radio ad in presidential battleground states. Curiously, the ad doesn't endorse Obama or try to paint him as open to the pro-life perspective as misleading groups like Catholics United and the Matthew 25 Network have attempted. Instead, FPL attempts to deceive pro-life voters into thinking abortion isn't an important voting topic. "With 1 in 5 pregnancies in America ending in abortion and the number of abortions unchanged from 32 years ago," it claims. Not so. In January, the Alan Guttmacher Institute, which bears the name of a former Planned Parenthood president, reported that the number of abortions nationwide have fallen to their lowest point in 30 years and have declined 25 percent since 1990. Full story at LifeNews.com
