March 18-24, 2007 Issue |
Posted 3/13/07 at 8:00 AM
WASHINGTON — The Republican
candidates for president in 2008 have taken varied positions on abortion and
other life issues. But they all seem to agree on one thing — each must somehow
reach out to pro-life voters or else lose the GOP nomination.
The power of pro-lifers within the
Republican Party has grown steadily ever since the 1973 Roe v. Wade
decision, which removed the abortion issue from the political process by
forcing legalized abortion with no restrictions on all 50 states. Since that
time, the pro-life movement has seized the mainstream of the Republican Party.
Ever since the 1980 victory of Ronald Reagan, pro-life voters have held great
sway over the party’s nomination process.
“It’s certainly encouraging and
interesting that the candidates realize that pro-lifers are strong enough in
the early stages of the Republican nomination process that their support is
essential,” said Ben Wetmore, president of Students for Life. “The question is
whether these candidates will stay true to that after Super Tuesday, after the
primaries are over.”
For some of the Republican
candidates, such as Rep. Duncan Hunter of California, Tom Tancredo of Colorado,
and Ron Paul of Texas, their pro-life credentials are completely or nearly
unquestioned. One of the candidates, Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas, has for
years made right-to-life issues his top priority in the Senate.
But
the others, including the three putative frontrunners, understand the need to
court pro-lifers as they seek the presidency, and each has tried to make up for
real or perceived weakness on the issue in his own way.
• Sen. John
McCain, R-Ariz., whose voting record is mostly pro-life, has nonetheless
suffered over the years from an antagonistic relationship with the pro-life
movement, partly due to the tangential issue of campaign finance reform.
McCain also cast
a vote in favor of human embryonic research last year, and in 1997 he voted to
fund fetal-tissue research on victims of abortion. Still, McCain recently took
the bold step of saying he wants Roe to be overturned — something President
Bush stopped short of saying when he ran in 2000.
“I do not support
Roe v. Wade,” he told a large crowd in South Carolina Feb. 18. “It should be
overturned.”
• Former Mass.
Gov. W. Mitt Romney has also reached out to pro-lifers with what he describes
as a recent change of heart on the issue of abortion. In previous campaigns,
including his unsuccessful 1994 run for Senate and his 2002 race for governor,
Romney embraced the “pro-choice position” on abortion.
“I
will preserve and protect a woman’s right to choose,” he said in a 2002 debate.
But in a speech in Washington earlier this year, Romney said that he now
believes life begins at conception. “I’ve changed my view on that,” he said.
At
the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington on March 3, Romney
continued to talk the pro-life talk as he addressed the crowd.
“Harvard
scientists,” he said with exasperation, “were in my office trying to convince
me that it’s not a moral issue to clone entirely new human embryos solely for
research.”
• Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani is the
most outspokenly pro-abortion candidate in the field, yet even while
maintaining this position, he has made serious overtures to pro-lifers.
“I
believe in a woman’s right to choose,” Giuliani recently told Sean Hannity on
the Fox News show Hannity and Colmes. “But I think the appointment of judges that I would
make would be very similar to, if not exactly the same as, the last two judges
that were appointed,” Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito.
Giuliani
said that he expected the Supreme Court to eventually allow more state
restrictions on abortion. He also said that as mayor he had pursued policies
that increased adoption and decreased the number of abortions in New York City.
Different Conclusions
Wetmore
said that members of his group have come to vastly different conclusions in
weighing the top three Republican candidates.
“McCain
has a very good voting record,” said Wetmore. “His weak point is clearly
embryonic stem cells, but he says he’s open to debate on that.”
Wetmore
added that Giuliani’s pro-abortion record — which in New York City extended
even to support for government funding of abortion — caused problems for many
of his associates.
“Most
of the students we work with have said that they have real reservations about
someone whose record is so clearly not pro-life,” said Wetmore. “At the same
time, it seems like a lot of very solid pro-lifers are supporting Romney
despite his track record.”
A
less-known candidate for president, former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore, told the
Register that although he believes abortion should be legal through the first
eight weeks of a pregnancy, he has strongly supported the pro-life movement in
his state, helping to enact various restrictions — including parental
notification and a 24-hour waiting period for abortions, a cloning ban and a
bill to ban partial birth abortion.
‘Human Bellwethers’
Gilmore
also pointed to the 1998 case of Hugh Finn — not unlike the Terri Schiavo case
— in which he went to court to block the removal of a permanently disabled
man’s feeding tube.
“I
rely on my record,” said Gilmore.
Former Democratic Boston Mayor Ray
Flynn, president of the activist group Catholic Voter, said that pro-lifers
should not overlook blemishes on the candidates’ records, but that they should
also not immediately reject candidates with spotty records on life issues if
they are willing to change sides.
“These
are politicians we’re dealing with,” he said. “I don’t believe things happen
because there’s a sudden revelation to politicians that they’ve discovered
what’s right. I’ve been in politics for 45 years, and I am more practical than
that. But politicians do discern the will of Americans better than most people
— they are human bellwethers.”
Flynn
said that pro-lifers should not be satisfied with mere words of support, but
that they should try to demonstrate to such politicians that the defense of
innocent human life is politically advantageous.
“Pin
them down in their position,” he said. “Encourage them to continue to speak
out. Support those candidates politically, contribute financially to the ones
that are pro-life, and then show up for political events. Let them know that
pro-lifers are political activists. That will help to cement them in their
position, to keep their support. The worst thing that could happen is that if
people like McCain come out and say they’re pro-life, they’re for repealing Roe v. Wade,
and then all they get is heat and criticism from pro-abortion activists and the
media.”
David Freddoso
writes from Washington, D.C.
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