Planned Parenthood Will Endorse Presidential Candidate for the First Time
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
November 3, 2003
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — Though it spent millions to elect a presidential candidate in 2000, the president of Planned Parenthood announced that the abortion business’ political action committee would endorse a presidential candidate for the first time next year.
The pro-abortion group already has plans to co-sponsor a national march for abortion in April and says it will step up other election activities.
”The theme really is that we need to stand up for choice,” Planned Parenthood President Gloria Feldt said at a meeting of Florida abortion advocates. "Right now we have an administration, both houses and many state legislatures and increasingly federal courts that are all anti-choice and are all ready to take away choice."
Pro-life groups say grassroots advocates should be prepared for a major election battle pitting a pro-abortion candidate against President Bush.
"Pro-lifers need to understand how seriously our opponents are taking this election," Carol Tobias, political director for National Right to Life, told LifeNews.com. "They are going to work very hard to defeat pro-life President Bush. For the babies’ sake, we can’t let them succeed."
That Planned Parenthood would get involved in a presidential race is nothing new.
According the Center for Responsive Politics, a leading campaign finance watchdog group, Planned Parenthood reportedly spent anywhere from $7 to $10 million during the 2000 presidential election on negative advertising blasting George W. Bush’s pro-life position.
In fact, it spent $1.5 million on television ads supporting pro-abortion Vice President Gore during the last two weeks of the election. That amount was slightly more than was spent by the Democratic Party itself — or any other political organization — during that time period.
Planned Parenthood’s 13-state media blitz featured more than 6,100 advertisements.
The ad campaign was designed to scare abortion advocates into erroneously thinking that the Supreme Court was one vote away from overturning the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision. In fact, the current court favors Roe by a 6-3 margin and two pro-life justices would be needed to form a pro-life majority.
While Bush has nominated numerous appeals court judges, he has not had an opportunity to appoint a Supreme Court justice. Pro-abortion lawmakers have held up the pro-life nominees with filibusters.
When it comes to elections, pro-abortion groups normally spend more money on issue advertising than they do on campaign contributions. However, Planned Parenthood gave pro-abortion candidates $460,000 in the year leading up to the 2000 elections.
Planned Parenthood’s state affiliates have also spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on pro-abortion candidates.
Feldt said the pro-abortion group hopes endorsing candidates will help change the political atmosphere.
”This should be the number one issue for women everywhere and for every individual who cares about the future,” she said.
