Texas Sen. Hutchison Tagged by Pro-Life GOP Group for Abortion Distortions
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
January 9, 2009
Austin, TX (LifeNews.com) — A pro-life Republican group has tagged Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison for distorting her position on abortion in a recent mailing to prospective voters. Hutchison is planning to vacate her Senate seat early to take on pro-life Texas Gov. Rick Perry in a combative primary contest in 2010.
While Perry has built a long pro-life record, Hutchison support legal abortions, including the Roe v. Wade case in 1973 that allowed about 50 million of them.
Colleen Parro, the head of the Republican National Coalition for Life told LifeNews.com on Friday the Hutchison is a member of the Wish List, a political action committee dedicated to election pro-abortion women to Congress.
"She supports legal abortion for the first six months of a baby’s life (until viability), and voted in 2003 to reaffirm Roe v. Wade," Parro said. "She opposes the pro-life plank in the Republican National Platform."
"In addition, she has been an outspoken advocate of taxpayer funding for research involving the killing of human embryos," Parro added.
Nevertheless, Parro said Texas voters may be "easily misled" by a recent Hutchison mailing.
In it, she claims a 94% pro-life voting record according to the National Right to Life Committee scorecard. Parro says Hutchison earned that rating by casting pro-life votes on issues such as taxpayer funding of abortions or parental notification but she says that Hutchison is doing a disservice to voters by not giving them the complete picture about how she backs abortion.
"Most of those votes were related to bills restricting or regulating the practice of abortion, or reducing or restricting taxpayer funding for abortions. The other 6% reflect her vote to reaffirm Roe and her votes on ESCR," Parro said.
When it comes to her "view on the fundamental individual right to life" Hutchison is not in line with the pro-life community, she said.
"Unless Texans are familiar with her true position, they will be deceived by the perception created by the reference to her voting record," Parro said.
On the other hand, Parro said Perry has been active in promoting the pro-life perspective as governor and she thanked him for a recent press conference announcing his support for Choose Life license plates.
"Governor Perry has consistently supported pro-life legislation in Texas," Parro said. "He does oppose Roe v. Wade and embryonic stem cell research."
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