CLARK ENTERS DEMOCRATIC FRAY

Update on the Presidential Campaign

By Carol Tobias, NRL Political Director

Retired Army general Wesley Clark has become the 10th candidate to announce he is seeking the Democratic Party's nomination for President. Unfortunately, Clark, like all the other nine Democrats, supports abortion.

On September 17, the day that Clark announced he was running, he was interviewed on ABC's Good Morning America. When he was asked, "Would you put restrictions on abortion?" Clark responded, "No. I'm pro-choice."

That evening, this exchanged occurred on CNN with host Aaron Brown:

BROWN: "As a candidate let's talk issues a little bit first. One that always comes up is abortion. You said you were pro-choice. Does that extend to what abortion opponents call partial-birth abortion?

CLARK: Well, I've said that I'm pro-choice. I think abortion should be legal, safe, and rare.

BROWN: That sounds like - - I think that literally is what Bill Clinton used to say. Are you going to pass on the partial-birth abortion question?

CLARK: I think it's a case of abortion being rare but fundamentally it is a woman's choice.

Clark and the nine other Democratic candidates running for President have learned that support for abortion is the one issue in which there can be no compromise for a Democratic Presidential candidate. Whether it's the war in Iraq, gun control vs. the Second Amendment, the death penalty, etc., the candidates can take differing points of view and argue amongst themselves in an attempt to gather support for the nomination.

While polls show that as many as 42% of all Democrats identify themselves as pro-life, the party's leadership is under the control of pro-abortion radicals who expect the presidential candidates to "stay the course" in support of the "right" to kill unborn children.

EMILY's LIST GIVES TO DEMOCRATIC 2004 CONVENTION

EMILY's List, an organization that helps to raise money for pro-abortion Democratic women candidates, is giving $250,000 to the Democratic National Committee for its 2004 convention in Boston.

EMILY's List requires that its candidates oppose all limits on abortion, support partial-birth abortion, and support full tax funding of abortion. As evidence of its strict requirements, look at its history.

EMILY's List helped elect two women U.S. senators, Mary Landrieu (La.) and Blanche Lincoln Lambert (Ar.), in 1996 and 1998, respectively. In 1999, the Senate considered the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act. Both Landrieu and Lambert first voted for a "substitute amendment" that would have gutted the ban - - but when that attack failed, they also voted to pass the ban. That was enough to get them excommunicated by EMILY's List.

In the group's December 1999 newsletter, EMILY's List President Ellen Malcolm stated that it would no longer support the two senators because they had voted to ban partial-birth abortions. Malcolm wrote, "Since these senators no longer meet EMILY's List's criteria on choice, they will be removed from the EMILY's List advisory committee and will no longer be eligible for EMILY's List support."

EMILY's List has taken a similar hard line on the issue of tax funding of abortions. In 1993, EMILY's List reprinted its stationery to remove the names of two House members - - Karen Thurman (D-Fl.) and Jill Long (D-In.). Both lawmakers had overall pro-abortion voting records, but they had both voted to renew the Hyde Amendment, prohibiting federal funding of abortions except to save the life of the mother, or in cases of rape or incest.

In its report on this incident, a Capitol Hill newsletter noted, "In the future, the group hopes to ensure that its candidates support abortion rights in all its manifestations" (CQ Congressional Monitor, October 6, 1993).

CANDIDATES SHOW SUPPORT FOR ABORTION IN NEW HAMPSHIRE

Planned Parenthood of Northern New England (PPNNE) has invited the Democratic candidates to visit their "health centers" in New Hampshire. So far, two candidates have taken them up on the invitation.

On August 9, Senator John Kerry toured the facility in Manchester. Senator John Edwards toured the facility in Keene on August 24. Both candidates then made themselves available for what Planned Parenthood called a "Choice Conversation" with PP volunteers and staff. PPNNE is expecting other candidates to show up for the Choice Conversation soon.

NARAL-New Hampshire invited the Democratic presidential candidates to speak at a forum in Manchester on September 17. Howard Dean is the only candidate who showed up, while the daughters of Senators Bob Graham (Fl.), John Kerry (Mass.), and Joe Lieberman (Ct.) represented their fathers at the pro-abortion event. Missouri Congressman Richard Gephardt's daughter planned to attend but missed the event because of a delayed flight.

Dean probably made supporters of abortion cringe, while angering pro-lifers by saying, "A lot of the fight about this issue is about language. And I actually propose that we all call ourselves pro-life, because we are pro-life. We need not cede the language fight. We care about life."

Pro-lifers can be upset at this man who says the ban on partial-birth abortions is "outrageous" and vowed to do everything possible to prevent the bill from becoming law. He cares about life? One could rightly ask, what would he do if he didn't care about life?

Editor's Note: As NRL News went to press, Florida Sen. Robert Graham dropped out.