Leading Pro-Abortion Groups Feud Over NARAL Obama Endorsement, Clinton
RSS Newsfeed 
Email article
Printer friendly
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
May 13, 2008
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — Just hours after NARAL announced it had endorsed Barack Obama for the Democratic nomination, leading abortion advocates who are backing Hillary Clinton began grumbling. Emily’s List officials are upset their pro-abortion counterpart has joined the Obama camp.
NARAL president Nancy Keenan said her group endorsed Obama because it appears likely he will become the nominee.
She said her group’s board of directors wanted to immediately focus on a potential Obama matchup with John McCain, the eventual Republican nominee who opposes abortion.
However, the abortion activists over at Emily’s List have been on Clinton’s side since early in the presidential campaign and have spent heavily trashing Obama.
Ellen Malcolm, the president of the group, considered one of the most heavily bankrolled political action committee’s in the country, told The Hill newspaper she’s upset with NARAL.
“I think it is tremendously disrespectful to Sen. Clinton — who held up the nomination of a FDA commissioner in order to force approval of Plan B and who spoke so eloquently during the Supreme Court nomination about the importance of protecting Roe vs. Wade — to not give her the courtesy to finish the final three weeks of the primary process," Malcolm said.
"It certainly must be disconcerting for elected leaders who stand up for reproductive rights and expect the choice community will stand with them," she told the political newspaper.
But NARAL political director Elisabeth Shipp retorted and told The Hill that her group wouldn’t get involved in the rest of the Democratic primary battle.
“We are going to be focusing all of our efforts on the Obama-McCain race,” she said.
Shipp said NARAL is not like Emily’s List, which has been roundly criticized for supporting only pro-abortion women even in cases when they are taking on pro-abortion men seeking the same office.
“We are not EMILY’s List,” Shipp told the newspaper. “We endorse Republicans and Democrats. We are not solely wedded to just endorsing women candidates. We endorse men.”
