Abortion Advocate Michael Bloomberg Says He Won’t Launch Presidential Bid

National   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Feb 28, 2008   |   9:00AM   |   WASHINGTON, DC

Abortion Advocate Michael Bloomberg Says He Won’t Launch Presidential Bid Email this article
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
February 28
, 2008

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg says he’s made it official and he will not launch an independent bid for the presidency this year. The abortion advocate had been rumored to be seriously considering a presidential campaign and using millions of his personal fortune to fund it, despite statements to the contrary.

"I listened carefully to those who encouraged me to run, but I am not — and will not be — a candidate for president," Bloomberg wrote in a New York Times editorial.

Instead, Bloomberg will look to endorsing a candidate who "takes an independent, nonpartisan approach" to serving the nation as president.

The mayor had previously said he would not run and he had also indicated he may not endorse either of the major party candidates for president.

In the Times op-ed, Bloomberg appeared to change his mind on an endorsement.

"While I have always said I am not running for president, the race is too important to sit on the sidelines, and so I have changed my mind in one area," Bloomberg wrote. "If a candidate takes an independent, nonpartisan approach — and embraces practical solutions that challenge party orthodoxy — I’ll join others in helping that candidate win the White House."

Speculation about a possible candidacy has ebbed and flowed for months and grew recently as Bloomberg attended a bipartisan political forum.

The 69-year-old mayor ran as a Republican but is a former Democrat and, last June, Bloomberg said he filed papers “to change my status as a voter and register as unaffiliated with any political party.”

Bloomberg has consistently drawn the ire of the pro-life movement for his abortion advocacy — going as far as requiring medical students there to learn to do abortions.

That he is pro-abortion and wants to force taxpayers to fund embryonic stem cell research is no secret.

In 2004, he was a leading figure in the largest pro-abortion fundraiser ever held at the GOP convention and, before that, he was responsible for pushing for mandatory abortion training for doctors in NYC medical programs.

"Reproductive choice is a fundamental human right, and we can never take it for granted," Bloomberg has said. "[O]n this issue, you’re either with us or against us."

The mayor has loaned five administration aides to assist pro-abortion Democrat Claire McCaskill last election as she took on pro-life Sen. Jim Talent, a Republican. The race helped give abortion advocates control of the Senate.

The New York Daily News interviewed a Bloomberg official who said the mayor got involved in the race because McCaskill backs embryonic stem cell research and a Missouri ballot measure that would promote human cloning.

He also donated $100 million to his alma mater, Johns Hopkins University for embryonic stem cell research.