Abortion Advocates Say No to Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh for Vice-President

State   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Apr 9, 2008   |   9:00AM   |   WASHINGTON, DC

Abortion Advocates Say No to Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh for Vice-President Email this article
Printer friendly page

RSS Newsfeed

by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
April 9
, 2008

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — Leading abortion advocates are saying Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh isn’t pro-abortion enough to become the vice-presidential running mate. They suggest Bayh, who supports legal abortion but has voted for some abortion limits, itsn’t a good complement to either pro-abortion Democratic candidate.

Bayh is a former Indiana governor who became a thorn in the side of pro-life advocates by vetoing legislation that would have limited abortions.

During his Senate tenure, Bayh has compiled a mostly pro-abortion voting record, according to the National Right to Life Committee.

The pro-life group gave Bayh a 28 percent pro-life mark for 2007-2008, with him voting with the group on a free speech issue and an amendment to prohibit taxpayer funding of abortions in the health care program for Indian Americans.

But Bayh voted twice against attempts to stop funding of international groups that promote or perform abortions in other nations and opposed allowing unborn children to be included in the SCHIP program.

He also voted with Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton to force taxpayers to fund embryonic stem cell research that destroys human life.

NRLC indicates Bayh received just a 25 percent pro-life voting record in 2005-2006, and scores of 18 percent, 0 percent and 11 percent in previous Congressional sessions.

Those votes aren’t good enough for Ellen Malcolm, president of Emily’s List, a top pro-abortion group bankrolling the Clinton campaign. It also doesn’t matter to Malcolm that Bayh is a Clinton supporter.

She told Gannett News Service that Bayh "has lost the support of some in the pro-choice community" over the rare votes he’s cast with pro-life lawmakers.

"I think we need to have a ticket that supports the (tenets) of Roe v. Wade, and that is where he has lost the support of some of the pro-choice community," she added.

"Obviously, we will convey to Sen. Clinton that we think it’s important to have a pro-choice person on the ticket, but ultimately it’s going to be her decision on who the running mate is," Malcolm said. "There are going to be a number of factors for her to weigh."