By Carol Tobias
NRL Political Director
This year's election is going to be the meanest, nastiest, toughest election we've ever seen. Our opponents want George Bush defeated. They will do anything necessary to make that happen.
Four years ago, Americans were presented with a clear choice. If Al Gore was elected, we'd continue down the path of death for millions of unborn children. If George Bush was elected, Americans would have a man in the White House who boldly declared that unborn children should be protected by law.
Pro-lifers knew that we had to change the course of this country. You worked your hearts out and elected George W. Bush.
For the 2000 election, our opponents spent an estimated $70 million. According to the Washington Post, this year more than 40 groups plan to spend $300 million to defeat President Bush.
Along with those mammoth financial efforts, don't be surprised when you see the media doing its part as well. The nonpartisan Center for Media and Public Affairs analyzed network evening newscasts in January and February. It found that the coverage of John Kerry was 79% positive. From April of last year through February 2004, coverage of President Bush was 68% negative.
So I'll caution you. When you're watching news reports, take them with a grain of salt. Some of what you hear may be just a little biased.
Take a look at the candidates and their records:
Sen. John Kerry voted six times against a ban on partial-birth abortion.
In spite of his votes, the bill finally passed. The day that President Bush signed the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, Kerry released a statement to the press with the headline, "President Bush Signs Bill that Takes American Women Backwards."
In a partial-birth abortion, an unborn baby, usually in the fifth or sixth month of pregnancy, is delivered feet first, all but the head. The back of the head is punctured, and the contents of her brain suctioned out. How can stopping that horrendous procedure possibly be considered "a step backward for women"?
Let's take a look at the Unborn Victims of Violence Act. This legislation, also known as "Laci and Conner's Law," recognizes that unborn children who are injured or killed during federal crimes are victims.
In a letter to Sen. Kerry, Sharon Rocha, mother of Laci Peterson and grandmother of Conner Peterson, implored Kerry to support the legislation. Not to do so, she wrote, "would be saying that Conner and other innocent victims like him are not really victims - - indeed, that they never really existed at all.
"I don't understand how any senator can vote to force prosecutors to tell such a grieving mother that she didn't really lose a baby - - when she knows to the depths of her soul that she did."
Referring to her daughter and unborn grandson, Mrs. Rocha's letter continued, "There were two bodies that washed up in San Francisco Bay, and the law should recognize that reality."
George W. Bush recognizes that reality. John Kerry does not.
Sen. Kerry has missed almost all Senate votes this year while campaigning for president. However, he did show up to vote against Laci and Conner's law.
John Kerry turned his back on a grieving family, and many others like them. However, the Unborn Victims of Violence Act passed both houses of Congress and on April 1 of this year, President Bush signed the bill into law.
We've been trying to get a vote on the Child Custody Protection Act (CCPA) in the Senate, but senators like John Kerry and Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle have blocked it in past Congresses. The CCPA would make it a federal crime for anyone other than the parents or legal guardians to take a minor girl across state lines to get a secret abortion, without her parents' knowledge or consent, to avoid her home state's parental involvement laws.
John Kerry doesn't think parents have the right to know if their minor daughter is pregnant and considering an abortion. He doesn't object to these young girls being taken across state lines so that her parents don't find out about the abortion.
Don't just take my word for how radical John Kerry is on this issue. Listen to this from the New York Times:
"He [Kerry] has consistently voted in favor of abortion rights, even on matters where polls showed the public to be in favor of restraints. Last year, for instance, he voted against legislation that outlawed the procedure that opponents of abortion call partial-birth abortion. 'Even on the most difficult issues, we've never had to worry about John Kerry's position,' said Kate Michelman, president of Naral Pro-Choice America."
Now let's look at President Bush. President Bush has eagerly signed three major pieces of pro-life legislation - - the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, the Unborn Victims of Violence Act, and the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act, which protects all infants born alive, including those who survive abortion. President Bush supports a ban on human cloning and rejects the development of human embryo farms.
President Bush reinstated the Mexico City Policy so that our tax dollars are not used by private organizations that perform abortions or work to legalize abortion in foreign countries. He opposes using tax dollars to pay for abortion and he thinks parents should be involved if their minor daughter is pregnant and considering an abortion.
President Bush, speaking at the Republican Governors Association Meeting in March, declared, "we stand for a culture of life in which every person counts and every person matters. We will not stand for the treatment of any life as a commodity to be experimented upon, exploited or cloned. We stand for the confirmation of judges who strictly and faithfully interpret the law. We will not stand for judges who undermine democracy by legislating from the bench and try to remake the culture by court order."
Contrast this with Sen. Kerry, who won't support judicial nominees unless they commit to keeping unlimited abortion on demand legal in our country.
On July 4, we celebrated the day the Declaration of Independence was adopted by our nation's founding fathers. We all know at least part of that wonderful document.
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed...."
We are able to work within a system to elect men and women who believe unborn children should be protected; men and women who believe that the lives of the elderly and the medically disabled have value, and merit legal protection, not because of who they are, but just because they are.
What can you do to influence the future of our country?
Make sure your pro-life relatives, friends, and neighbors are registered to vote. Then, of course, make sure they do vote.
Help find more volunteers. Reach out to friends and family members and get them involved.
Everything we do in the coming months should be geared toward motivating voters. There is absolutely nothing wrong with encouraging single-issue voting when that issue is life. We want people to realize that of all the issues that exist today, protecting innocent, vulnerable human life is the most important.
We have a clear choice in candidates running for president this year.