Kerry's Record Speaks for Itself

For the record, Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry has been a lifelong advocate of unlimited abortion.

The record needs to be restated because he has been attempting to gloss over his pro-abortion position as he campaigns for votes in Midwestern and Southern states, where voters are more likely pro-life.

Our thanks to Steven Ertelt, whose LifeNews.com provided information for this column.

In an interview with his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, on CNN's “Larry King Live” earlier this month, Kerry was asked whether he thought abortion was a moral issue. He launched into an evasive defense of his position.

“Sure it is,” he told CNN. “I mean, being for choice does not mean you are for abortion. Neither Teresa nor I are for abortion.”

But then he echoed former president Bill Clinton by saying, “Abortion should be rare, but safe and legal.”

Abortion is legal, but it is anything but safe and rare. More than 1.3 million abortions take place annually in the United States and women continue to die from the procedure.

Kerry continued his explanation of his position to Larry King, both defending abortion “rights” as well as softening his position with a support of adoption.

“I think that it's really a question of who should make this decision and how to arrive at it. But there is morality,” Kerry told King. “Of course there's morality involved. And we should be talking to people in America about responsibility, about adoption, about other choices. And I want to have a better conversation than I think we've had on it. But it doesn't change my position on who chooses. And I will protect that right of choice.”

Earlier this month, while campaigning in Iowa, Kerry told the Dubuque Telegraph Herald newspaper: “I oppose abortion, personally. I don't like abortion. I believe life does begin at conception.”

The surprising remarks don't match Kerry's consistent record and rhetoric that favor abortion.

As a member of the Senate, Kerry has compiled only a 2% pro-life voting record since 1984, according to the National Right to Life Committee.

Kerry has voted against every piece of pro-life legislation in the Senate recently, including the partial-birth abortion ban and Unborn Victims of Violence Act, and he supported a measure endorsing the Roe v. Wade decision that struck down laws banning abortions.

At the same time Kerry tried to minimize his pro-abortion views, he also said he couldn't legislate his alleged position against abortion.

“I can't take my Catholic belief, my article of faith, and legislate it on a Protestant or a Jew or an atheist,” he continued in the interview with the Iowa newspaper. “We have separation of church and state in the United States of America.”

In fact, Catholics' opposition to abortion doesn't flow from our unique beliefs about revelation but from the natural law. We believe abortion is wrong because killing is wrong — not because the Church says so.

And pro-lifers say Kerry will indeed impose abortion laws on those who believe they're wrong.

Carol Tobias, political director of the National Right to Life Committee, told LifeNews.com, “If elected president, [Kerry] would use Supreme Court appointments to make sure that abortion is here for many, many years to come.”

In response to Kerry's selection of Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., as his running mate, Tobias said, “With John Edwards, Kerry has selected a running mate whose position is as extreme as his own, even opposing the ban on partial-birth abortions.”

After all, pro-abortion activists are is in no doubt about Kerry's record. The organization formerly known as the National Abortion Rights Action League recently unveiled what it called its “aggressive” campaign to elect Kerry president.

Four major issues it cites are: the Supreme Court, making abortion drugs more available (despite their dangerous track record), taxpayer funded abortions and defeating abstinence programs.

The lesson: When it comes to John Kerry, look at his actions and his plans — not his words.