The pro-abortion political group Emily’s List has released a new ranking of the Republican presidential candidates and it labels former Speaker Newt Gingrich as the worst of the GOP hopefuls seeking to defeat pro-abortion President Barack Obama.
Emily’s List is releasing a scorecard on all of the candidates and sees Gingrich as the worst if only because he has refined his pro-life position and recently moved to supporting a position that life begins at conception or fertilization as opposed to saying it begins at implantation.
Gingrich’s voting record on pro-life issues reflected the consensus pro-life views of the majority of Americans.
Gingrich voted in favor of a ban on partial-birth abortion. (President Clinton ultimately vetoed the bill and a ban was not signed into law until President Bush took office.) Gingrich also voted to cut federal funding to organizations that perform or promote abortions abroad, including the United Nations Population Fund, which is complicit in carrying out China’s One Child Policy. In addition, Gingrich supported restrictions on funding for assisted suicide.
In the 2012 presidential race, Gingrich has pledged to appoint pro-life judges to the Supreme Court, end taxpayer funding of abortion, de-fund Planned Parenthood and sign into law a federal Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act. Gingrich is also committed to repealing the pro-abortion Obama healthcare law, which contains massive abortion funding and threats of rationing.
Because the Republican presidential candidates generally have similar pro-life views, and because pro-abortion groups are moving away from defending abortion in a climate where a majority of Americans are increasingly pro-life, Emily’s List ranked the candidates on non-abortion issues they think are important to women. As a result, the pro-abortion group gave Rick Perry its best grade even though he has a consistent pro-life record.
Included along with abortion, Emily’s List looked at healthcare reforms, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, economic stimulus and “workplace fairness” laws and penalized any candidates have changed their positions, such as Mitt Romney, who converted to the pro-life position years ago. It also evaluated the candidates’ stances on unemployment benefits and the minimum wage.
Gingrich received the most marks against him at 14 time disagreeing with Emily’s List, Michelle Bachmann was rated second worst at 12, Mitt Romney and Ron Paul at 11, Rick Santorum at nine, Jon Huntsman at eight, and Perry at six.
But, on the issue of abortion itself — “Supports or Opposes certain exceptions for abortions and funding for Title X Programs and Planned Parenthood” as the pro-abortion group labels it — Romney gets the worst marks with Bachmann, Santorum, Gingrich and Paul tying for second worst.
“On each issue, candidates were given strikes for their rhetoric, actions and consistency,” the pro-abortion group said. “Women voters are key to any candidate hoping to win in November 2012, and we want to make sure that voters know the truth about the Republican candidates. We encourage voters to learn more about the candidates’ records and to explore how their views would impact their home states.”
Read the full scorecard here.
