Abortion Advocates Continue Trashing NARAL for Endorsing Barack Obama
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
May 16, 2008
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — Leading pro-abortion group NARAL endorsed Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama on Wednesday and was immediately taken to task. Emily’s List attacked the pro-abortion group on Wednesday, it states affiliates followed suit, and the piling on continues.
In a nationally syndicated column, longtime abortion advocate Susan Estrich heaped scorn on NARAL’s leaders.
She said the Obama endorsement "had absolutely nothing to do with preserving abortion rights and everything to do with their own sense of self-importance."
"Many women I know who have given generously of their time and efforts and money to the organization over the years are furious, and I don’t blame them," she added.
Estrich says "there’s no reason to believe" Obama would be any more pro-abortion than Hillary Clinton and said the organization should have waited to issue an endorsement until after the primary election is settled.
"But clearly, that wasn’t enough for the leadership of NARAL. They wanted to be players in the presidential game. So they made a choice between two candidates who differ not at all on abortion … choosing to make themselves look important," she added.
Estrich also wondered what NARAL could have gotten from Obama "that would lead them to turn their back on the first woman to make a serious run for the presidency."
She said the endorsement decision "was about the Obama supporters on the board outnumbering the Clinton backers and forgetting which hats they were wearing, that they were supposed to be putting the organization ahead of their partisan pursuits, and doing what was best for the cause, not their candidate."
Ultimately, Estrich said the endorsement will cost NARAL supporters and funds from pro-abortion Clinton backers who are upset that their candidate was disrespected by a poorly-timed endorsement.
Meanwhile, the newly formed WomenCount PAC issued a statement LifeNews.com received denouncing the endorsement as well.
The group said long-time supporters of NARAL would likely abandon the organization in favor of its efforts and those of Emily’s List, another top pro-abortion political action committee that has been in Clinton’s corner from the beginning of the primary season.
"The idea that NARAL would create a divisive and potentially permanent rift in the pro-choice movement is a shortsighted, irresponsible rush to judgment," WomenCount founding member Allida Black said.
"Using this important issue in such an irresponsible way can only be interpreted as blatant pandering," she said.
Susie Tompkins Buell, a longtime supporter of NARAL and another founder of the new pro-abortion political group, join in as well.
"What this tells me is the disconnect between NARAL’s political advisors, its Board, and its Leadership from the very women they are sworn to protect," she said.