Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama Fight Over Abortion in New Hampshire

National   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Jan 7, 2008   |   9:00AM   |   WASHINGTON, DC

Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama Fight Over Abortion in New Hampshire Email this article
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
January 7,
2008

Concord, NH (LifeNews.com) — Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama fought over the issue of abortion again as they traded criticisms in mailings and phone calls to New Hampshire voters over the weekend. Clinton started the melee with a mailing saying Obama is not pro-abortion enough and the Illinois senator responded.

The mailing accuses Obama of not standing up for abortion strongly enough when he was a member of the Illinois state legislature by voting present on a number of abortion-related bills.

The issue came up when the two campaigns fought in Iowa and Clinton went as far as having a leader of Emily’s List blast Obama over the votes.

However, as LifeNews.com reported, the Illinois Planned Parenthood Council came to Obama’s defense saying that it coordinated the strategy with Obama to help him and other lawmakers avoid taking heat from pro-life groups for voting against popular bills such as a ban on partial-birth abortions.

Clinton repeated the criticisms in the New Hampshire mailing.

Obama’s campaign responded to the mailing with phone calls from Wendy Frosh, chair of the board of Planned Parenthood in Northern New England, who said Obama "has a 100 percent pro-choice record and has always been a champion for women’s rights."

"Hillary Clinton’s last-minute smears won’t protect the right to choose, but as president Barack Obama will," she says in the call, according to an AP report.

However, Frosh’s calls caused a minor controversy since the abortion business has not endorsed a candidate. She and the pro-abortion group released an email afterwards saying Frosh was making the endorsement of Obama on her own and taking a temporary leave of absence from the board.

Clinton officials said they’re concerned that Obama’s response calls are violating the do-not cal registry by including people on the list.

Clinton’s New Hampshire co-chair Kathy Sullivan told AP that her campaign had received two phone calls from New Hampshire residents complaining about Obama’s phone campaign.

In the Iowa confrontation between Clinton and Obama, Emily’s List president Ellen Malcolm was rattled at a press conference attacking Obama.