PPFA, NARAL CONTINUE TO ATTACK BUSH

By Dave Andrusko

Just because there are still nearly seven months to go before Americans elect a successor to Bill Clinton doesn't mean that pro- abortionists are pausing to catch their breath. Their non-stop assault on pro-life Texas Gov. George W. Bush even includes taking the battle to Bush's home state.

Planned Parenthood (PPFA) President Gloria Feldt took her traveling show to the University of Texas at Austin April 4. There, she warned the students about the danger posed by Gov. Bush.

"George W. Bush has already announced himself to be the most anti- abortion governor in the country," Feldt said. (What she apparently forgot to tell her students was that when NARAL labeled Gov. Bush the most "anti-choice" governor in America, columnist Bob Novak asked Bush to respond. Bush's answer? "I rest their case. I'm pro-life.")

What about the Roe v. Wade decision itself? Feldt reminded students that Bush has said that the Roe decision "was a reach (and) overstepped the constitutional bounds."

Anticipating the fall elections, Feldt warned that the next president will appoint new U.S. Supreme Court justices who could change the court majority that supports abortion "in a heartbeat."

Feldt was particularly upset that Bush would gently suggest that we need a change of heart about abortion. "He has made the arrogant statement that Americans' hearts aren't right; that's why he can't outlaw abortion altogether just yet," she said. "But I suppose he thinks he's going to put our hearts right. I find that about as insulting as anything I've ever heard."

Feldt would really have been insulted if she had listened to Bush's 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."

In interview with Austin American-Statesman political reporter Dave McNeely that appeared April 6, Feldt was not shy about her target: Bush. McNeely told his readers that PPFA set up a political action committee in 1998 to "endorse candidates and let voters know its stands on reproductive rights issues."

At the same time Feldt was insisting that Planned Parenthood "is a quintessentially non-partisan organization," she told McNeely " that doesn't stop us from doing voter education."

NARAL, PPFA's partner in abortion advocacy, has been even harder on Bush. In one ad aired late last year, NARAL said, "It's very important to know what George W. Bush would do if elected. Bush is anti-choice and with this power he could take away a woman's right to choose. On choice, the stakes could not be higher."

That was at least the third time NARAL has run negative advertisements attacking Gov. Bush on the abortion issue. A year ago, in March 1999, ads were run in Iowa, New Hampshire, and California; last August more negative ads were run in New Hampshire.