John Kerry Continues to Cover Up Extreme Abortion Position
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
July 11, 2004
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — Though Massachusetts senator John Kerry has a lifelong record advocating unlimited abortion, he has been attempting to gloss over his pro-abortion position as he campaign for votes in Midwestern and Southern states, where voters are more
likely pro-life.
In an interview with his wife, Theresa Heinz Kerry, on CNN’s "Larry King Live" on Thursday night, Kerry was asked whether he thought abortion was a moral issue. He launched into an evasive defense of his position.
"Sure it is," he told CNN. "I mean, being for choice does not mean you are for abortion. Neither Teresa nor I are for abortion."
However, in the next breath, Kerry used a line made popular by former president Bill Clinton by saying, "Abortion should be rare, but safe and legal."
Abortion is legal, but pro-life advocates say it is anything but safe and rare. More than 1.3 million abortions take place annually in the United States and women continue to die from the procedure.
Last year, California teenager Holly Patterson died from an infection brought on by an incomplete abortion after she took the dangerous RU 486 abortion pill. In Michigan earlier this year, an African-American teen died after an abortion and, in Arizona, an abortion practitioner was convicted of charges related to a woman’s death from a botched abortion procedure.
Kerry continued his explanation of his position to Larry King, both defending abortion "rights" as well as qualifying his position with a support of adoption, intended to pacify pro-life advocates.
"I think that it’s really a question of who should make this decision, and how do arrive at it. But there is morality," Kerry told King. "Of course there’s morality involved. And we should be talking to people in America about responsibility, about adoption, about other choices. And I want to have a better conversation than I think we’ve had on it. But it doesn’t change my position on who chooses. And I will protect that right of choice."
Earlier this month, while campaigning in Iowa, Kerry told the Dubuque Telegraph Herald newspaper, "I oppose abortion, personally. I don’t like abortion. I believe life does begin at conception."
The surprising remarks don’t match Kerry’s record and consistent rhetoric in favor of abortion.
As a member of the Senate, Kerry has compiled only a 2% pro-life voting record since 1984, according to the National Right to Life Committee.
Kerry has voted against every piece of pro-life legislation in the Senate recently, including the partial-birth abortion ban, and Unborn Victims of Violence Act, and he supported a measure endorsing the Roe v. Wade decision that struck down laws banning abortions.
At the same time Kerry tried to minimize his pro-abortion views, he also said he couldn’t legislate his alleged position against abortion.
"I can’t take my Catholic belief, my article of faith, and legislate it on a Protestant or a Jew or an atheist," he continued in the interview with the Iowa newspaper. "We have separation of church and state in the United States of America."
Despite the conflicting statements, pro-life advocates know that a Kerry administration will steadfastly promote abortion.
Carol Tobias, Political Director of the National Right to Life Committee, told LifeNews.com, "If elected president, he would use Supreme Court appointments to make sure that abortion is here for many, many years to come."
