NRLC ENDORSES GEORGE W. BUSH FOR PRESIDENT

By Carol Tobias
NRL PAC Director

The National Right to Life Committee, expressing appreciation for his strong and consistent pro-life position, has endorsed Texas Governor George W. Bush to be the next President of the United States.

Because there were initially a large number of pro-life candidates in the Republican contest, NRLC did not endorse before the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary.

However, as the number of candidates dwindled, polls showed that this was now essentially a two-person race with only George W. Bush and Arizona Senator John McCain having a realistic chance of winning the Republican presidential nomination.

In a videotaped address to the NRL Convention last June, Bush stated, "I do not believe the promises of the Declaration of Independence are just for the strong, the independent, the healthy. They are for everyone--including unborn children. We are a society with enough compassion and wealth and love to care for both mothers and their children, to seek the promise and potential in every life."

On NBC's Meet the Press last November, he continued that theme. "I'm going to set a goal that says the unborn ought to be protected in law and welcomed to life. That ought to be a national goal," Bush said. "And the first step is to have a president who values life. Part of ushering in the responsibility era, of which I talk a lot about, is for folks to understand the preciousness of life. It's not only life of the unborn, it is life for the elderly, it is life for the young" (interview with Tim Russert, NBC's Meet the Press, 11/21/99).

NRLC announced its endorsement at February 9 press conferences in Washington, D.C., and South Carolina.

In 1997, the Texas legislature passed a measure which would have allowed physicians to withhold lifesaving treatment against a patient's expressed will. At the request of pro-life leaders, Gov. Bush vetoed the measure, saying that it "contained several provisions that would permit a physician to deny life-sustaining procedures to a patient who desires them."

Gov. Bush and his office then worked with pro-lifers to see that a bill was passed and signed into law in 1999 that protected the right of patients to receive lifesaving treatment.

Early last year, Bush filed a friend of the court brief with a state appeals court opposing an attempt by pro-abortionists to compel the state of Texas to pay for elective abortions. Also in 1999, Bush worked with pro-lifers in Texas to pass a parental notification law so that parents would be informed if their minor daughter was pregnant and considering an abortion.

Bush has also made it very clear that he supports the current pro-life plank in the Republican platform and opposes any changes to weaken it.

Unlike Bush, John McCain has made conflicting statements on abortion during the campaign. He told the editorial board of the San Francisco Chronicle that he would not support reversing the U.S. Supreme Court's decision which legalized abortion on demand "in the short term or even the long term" (San Francisco Chronicle, August 20, 1999).

In the same interview, McCain referred to abortion as being "necessary."

World magazine quoted McCain as expressing similar sentiments and saying that reversal of Roe v. Wade would "endanger the lives of women" (World, August 21, 1999). As NRLC pointed out to reporters, not reversing Roe v. Wade is costing the lives of 1.3 million unborn children every year.

Two votes in the Senate last October perhaps symbolize McCain's lack of commitment to unborn children. After an unsuccessful attempt by McCain to pass so-called "campaign finance reform" legislation, the Senate voted on whether to set aside that legislation and move to the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act. However, McCain voted to continue the debate on campaign reform rather than start the debate on the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban.

During the debate on the abortion bill, a vote was taken - - for the first time in 16 years - - on whether to endorse Roe v. Wade. McCain skipped the vote to campaign in New Hampshire. (In 1988, when he was running for president, then-Vice President George Bush flew back from New Hampshire to be on hand in case his vote was needed to break a tie on a pro-life vote in the Senate that was expected to be close.)

In the closing days before the New Hampshire primary, John McCain made statements that were characterized by the pro-abortion Republican Pro-Choice Coalition as "pro-choice."

Another area of grave concern to pro-lifers is the statement from McCain that he may appoint former New Hampshire Senator Warren Rudman to be attorney general. The attorney general is the person who is usually the president's closest adviser on appointing Supreme Court judges.

Rudman is a strong supporter of Roe v. Wade. In his autobiography, Rudman wrote that the "Christian right" contains "anti-abortion zealots" and "bigots."

McCain is also the first leading Republican presidential candidate ever to urge that the pro-life plank in the Republican platform be weakened.

When asked about National Right to Life PAC's opposition to his campaign, McCain brushes off the charges, as he seems to do with anyone who disagrees with him. He said that the attacks are motivated by money (see "An Open Letter to John McCain," page 21).

On the Democratic side, Vice President Al Gore and former Senator Bill Bradley are trying to out-do each other to see which of them has the stronger pro-abortion position.

Recently, there has been much focus on Al Gore's flip-flop on abortion. As a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Tennessee, he had a pro-life voting record. Gore changed his position after he was elected to the Senate and began to run for President. However, today there is no difference in Al Gore's and Bill Bradley's extreme pro-abortion stance. Either would be deadly for unborn children.

In a speech in Los Angeles last month, pro-abortion President Bill Clinton said that George W. Bush, by endorsing a constitutional amendment, laid out clearly for voters the choice facing them in November.

Clinton stated, "There is absolutely no question in my mind; whether Roe v. Wade is preserved or scrapped depends on what happens in the presidential election, and to pretend otherwise is naive" (Washington Times, 1/23/00).

NRLC applauds Governor Bush for his courageous and consistent pro-life stand. We believe that with President George W. Bush in the White House, millions of unborn children will be saved.