Democratic Presidential Candidates Continue to Reinforce Pro-Abortion Positions

By Carol Tobias
Political Director

Nine candidates are seeking the Democratic nomination for president to run against pro-life President George W. Bush. All nine candidates - - ex-Illinois Senator Carol Moseley Braun, ex-Vermont Governor Howard Dean, Senator John Edwards (NC), Rep. Richard Gephardt (MO), Senator Bob Graham (FL), Senator John Kerry (MA), Rep. Dennis Kucinich (OH), Senator Joe Lieberman (CT), and Rev. Al Sharpton - - are trying to out-do each other as to who can be the strongest advocate of abortion on demand.

In January, the first six candidates to enter the race - - Dean, Edwards, Gephardt, Kerry, Lieberman, and Sharpton - - addressed a pro-Roe v. Wade gathering of the pro-abortion group formerly known as NARAL. In one of the last interviews he gave, the late New York Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D), who was no pro-lifer, told the New York Times that it was unfortunate that the first time all the Democratic presidential hopefuls got together was to endorse abortion. Defense of partial-birth abortion, Moynihan said, "was not right with the American people."

On May 20, EMILY's List, a PAC that supports only Democratic women candidates who support unrestricted abortion, held a conference in which seven of the candidates attended, reaffirming their support for abortion.

Several of the candidates vigorously attacked the kind of judicial nominees that President Bush has been putting forward. Dean said, "This is the most conservative far-right president that we have had since I have been alive and he has appointed the most conservative, far-right judicial appointees in my lifetime."

Kerry told the group, "The Supreme Court is at stake in this race as never before in modern memory." And Edwards stated that President Bush's judicial nominees "will take your rights away." He continued, "If we as Democrats don't have the backbone to stand up and fight for that, we don't stand for anything."

Kerry and Kucinich have been very upfront about having a litmus test for Supreme Court nominees, should they be elected president.

At a meeting in Iowa, Kerry was asked "if he would appoint judges who would uphold" Roe v. Wade. Kerry said, "Yes. That is not a litmus test, so to speak."

In a later interview with the Des Moines Register, Kerry continued, "I don't want to get into an argument about litmus tests. The focus is on the constitutional right that Roe established in America. I want jurists to agree, who swear to uphold the Constitution." He added, "If some people want to call it a test, they can call it a test. The bottom line is I want someone who will understand that right and uphold it."

Kucinich had a mostly pro-life voting record until last year and has since done a complete flip-flop on his position. Kucinich was elected to Congress in 1996, at which time he said, "I believe that life begins at conception but doesn't end at birth." He now says that "as president, I would protect that right [to abortion], and I would also make sure that appointees to the Supreme Court protected that right."

Lieberman and Gephardt have perhaps taken the most hypocritical position, saying that they would not have a pro-abortion litmus test for nominees, but that they would appoint judges who would uphold Roe v. Wade.

Gephardt told the Des Moines Register, "I am for Roe versus Wade. I want it to be the law of the land. I would want judges who would in the main keep the basic precedents of the court and not plow new ground and move the court to the right."

In March, when the Senate voted to pass the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, an amendment was offered to "endorse" Roe v. Wade, and to oppose any effort to overturn the Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion on demand. All four senators running for president - - Edwards, Graham, Kerry, and Lieberman - - voted for the amendment in support of Roe v. Wade.

Lieberman and Graham then voted against the bill to ban partial-birth abortion. Edwards and Kerry, perhaps expecting the vote to be used against them in the presidential campaign, did not vote on final passage of the ban. However, they have voted against the bill in previous congressional sessions.