Obama To Take On McCain Abortion Record
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WASHINGTON — The Obama campaign is seeking to exploit Senator McCain’s anti-abortion voting record in a bid to retain the votes of women who may be unaware of the Republican presumptive nominee’s pledge to run a pro-life administration if elected.
The effort may face a harder time if Mr. McCain announces a running mate such as Senator Lieberman or Governor Ridge, who favor abortion rights.
Regardless of the choice of Senator McCain’s running mate, the candidate himself and the Republican platform will voice a strong anti-abortion line. The chairman of the Campaign for Working Families, Gary Bauer, who is representing the McCain campaign on the platform committee, said the campaign submitted language on abortion that he described as “strong,” but added that “the committee made it even stronger.”
Part of the campaign is spurred by a recent poll from Planned Parenthood that found 51% of women voters in 16 competitive states were unaware of the presumptive Republican presidential nominee’s opposition to the Supreme Court ruling, Roe v. Wade, that banned states from outlawing abortion.
A senior adviser to the Obama campaign, Anita Dunn, said, “Senator McCain has a more radical anti-choice position than even George W. Bush, and we’re going to make sure that voters across the country understand that.” Meanwhile, the political action committee, Emily’s List, is planning to target swing voters in select congressional districts by highlighting Mr. McCain’s positions on abortion over the years.
Part of the problem for the Obama camp is the perception among many undecided voters that because the Arizona lawmaker has bucked his party on issues such as campaign finance reform and military interrogation rules, he is also opposed to the Republican party position on abortion. The Planned Parenthood survey found that 49% of the 1,205 women polled who supported Mr. McCain say they wish to see the Roe v. Wade decision upheld.
For his part, Mr. McCain has not tried to obscure his views on the matter. He devoted his August 23 radio address to attacking Senator Obama for opposing, in the Illinois legislature, something called the Born Alive Act, legislation that instructs doctors to protect the life of infants who survive abortion procedures. At Pastor Rick Warren’s presidential forum this month, Mr. McCain pledged to run a “pro-life administration.” Nonetheless, the Arizona lawmaker has never made the social conservative agenda a high priority. In 1999, when he launched his first bid for the presidency, the Arizona senator suggested that he would not nominate Supreme Court judges with any abortion litmus test in mind, but in this campaign he has pledged to appoint conservative justices. More recently, in comments he gave to reporters on his bus in February, Mr. McCain said, “It’s not social issues I care about.”
Senator Brownback, a Republican from Kansas and an early endorser of Mr. McCain, said yesterday that Mr. McCain’s voting record against abortion has been “strong,” and that he voted for the judges, amendments, and legislation of the pro-life caucus “through thick and thin.” But at the same time, he said that Mr. McCain had been more out front on foreign policy and fiscal issues. “This is just not an area where he has led,” he said.
A writer for National Review and the author of “The Party of Death,” Ramesh Ponnuru, said, “McCain has never been a leader in the fight against abortion. He would not say so himself,” he said.,”but he has a solid anti-abortion record stretching back two decades.”
The president of Emily’s List, a political action committee that gives money to abortion rights candidates, Ellen Malcolm, said that her group would be looking to educate voters on Senator McCain’s positions on women’s health in general. “People think because he is a maverick he must be moderate on these issues,” she said.
Ms. Malcolm rattled off a list of issues where Senator McCain has voted in a way her organization plans to highlight to its members. They include his opposition to federal funding for family planning programs that provide both birth control and women’s health services. “On a wide range of issues that affect women’s reproductive issues, he has followed the conservative Bush line, and he has said that Roe v. Wade should be overturned,” she said.
A preview of the Democratic Party’s case against Senator McCain on the issue is a speech delivered on August 25 by the president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, Nancy Keenan. She said, “John McCain has spent more than 25 years in Washington voting against women’s freedom and has pledged to appoint Justices to the Supreme Court who will overturn Roe v. Wade.”
Whether this pitch will keep Senator Clinton’s voters in the Obama camp remains to be seen. Mr. Brownback says that the confusion among some women about Mr. McCain’s record on abortion could at least “get him into the door in some places.”
Some anti-abortion activists say that Mr. Obama is vulnerable on the abortion issue as well. The legislative director of the National Right to Life Committee, Douglas Johnson, said he believed that the contrast on abortion between Senators McCain and Obama favored McCain. “Senator McCain has had a very strong pro-life record throughout his career in Congress. Senator Obama has been making great efforts to obscure his record because it is so out of the mainstream,” Mr. Johnson said.