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August 16, 2005
NARAL: All Legitimacy Left Behind
NARAL has hit rock-bottom...
And they've started to dig.
They pulled the commercial but are still insisting Roberts supports violence against abortion clinics. Read more from Culture & Cosmos below.
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NARAL Website Still Portrays Judge John Roberts as Defender of Violence
Despite their decision to pull a misleading television ad that accuses Judge John G. Roberts of defending violence against abortion clinics, NARAL Pro-Choice America remains strongly opposed to Roberts' nomination to the Supreme Court. Their website, ProChoiceAmerica.org, features a special section devoted to providing talking points and other documents designed to hurt Roberts' confirmation chances including one that continues to portray him as a defender of clinic violence.
NARAL has come under intense criticism for a recent television ad that implied that Roberts defended the perpetrators of 1998 bombing of a Birmingham, Ala. abortion clinic. The accusation stems from an amicus curiae brief Roberts co-authored seven years before the bombing when he was Deputy Solicitor General in the administration of President George H.W. Bush. In a brief for the case Bray v. Alexandria Women's Health Clinic, Roberts argued that protestors at an abortion clinic could not be prosecuted under a Civil War era civil rights law. In his oral argument before the Supreme Court, Roberts makes it clear that the protesters should be prosecuted for any state laws they violated such as trespassing, disturbing the peace or inciting a riot.
The ad came under a barrage of criticism, including from supporters of abortion like Frances Kissling, president of "Catholics" for a Free Choice. After a letter denouncing it was sent to NARAL by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, who is pro-abortion, the ad was pulled. In a letter to Specter, NARAL president Nancy Keenan did not apologize for the ad's content but did say she regretted "that many people have misconstrued our recent advertisement about Mr. Roberts' record."
The day after pulling the ad, NARAL communications director David E. Seldin announced he was resigning immediately. In an e-mail to coworkers he said, "I've been thinking for a while that I would most likely leave after the Supreme Court nomination fight was over, and by leaving now I can spend the next two weeks in Cape Cod with my family relaxing, instead of trying to find a place with good cell phone reception." A Washington Post report said Seldin was among a group of Democrats who thought they should be tougher on Roberts.
Despite pulling the ad, NARAL is using the same rhetoric as the ad in its online campaign to stop confirmation of Roberts saying he "argued in support of the violent clinic protesters at Operation Rescue who have tried to block women's access to basic health care services with bombs and threats of murder." The document accuses Roberts of being "so driven by ideology that he will excuse lawless conduct against women and other Americans."
In a list of talking points on the website, NARAL says that the "Bush administration owes it to the American public to disclose all relevant information about John Roberts, including his taxes, records from his job as Deputy Solicitor General, and the radical right's role in his selection."
Copyright 2005---Culture of Life Foundation.
Permission granted for unlimited use. Credit required.
Culture of Life Foundation
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Posted by John Bambenek at August 16, 2005 2:46 PM
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Comments
Telling a whopper of a lie and sticking to it has worked for NARAL in the past. Is it any surprise they're doing it now?
Posted by: Christina at August 16, 2005 7:03 PM
It is encouraging to see that the mainstream media is like a declawed pussy cat. It still has a roar but little else. All of the organizations they have upheld, idolized and lied about in the past are being scrutinized by the people, who are not as dumb as the media thinks. Finally we are seeing the results of a hard fought battle for the truth. Truth will always prevail in the end, it is just the battle that gets rough.
Posted by: webloafer at August 17, 2005 10:41 AM
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