California’s Carly Fiorina Urged to Take Consistent Pro-Life Stance on Abortion
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
August 26, 2009
Sacramento, CA (LifeNews.com) — Carly Fiorina is the former Hewlett Packard executive and spokeswoman for the John McCain presidential campaign who is considering a run for the U.S. Senate against pro-abortion stalwart Barbara Boxer. As she contemplates her candidacy, she is asked to established pro-life credentials.
The question of where Fiorina stands on pro-life issues is a valid one and there is little evidence for voters to go on thus far.
The pro-life community in California is excited about the prospects of defeating Boxer, whom polling numbers show is embattled and could face an uphill re-election contact. For the, though, the question is: Will Fiorina be different?
Joshua Trevino, a consultant for Senate candidate Chuck DeVore, who is pro-life, asks the question in a new post on the RedState blog. He admits that Fiorina has called herself pro-life but hasn’t expanded beyond that moniker.
"Any review of Fiorina’s pro-life convictions must acknowledge that for the past 20 months, when pressed on the issue, she has declared herself ‘pro-life,’" he writes. "This is laudable. Unfortunately, it is all too easy to question the depth of Fiorina’s commitment to the pro-life cause."
Trevino says Fiorina’s lack of a record on abortion contributes to questions because she has "never uttered a public word on the topic nor lent any support to pro-life activism before embarking upon her political career."
He points out that most media accounts of her position describe her as "pro-choice" and that she didn’t appear to describe herself as pro-life until speaking on McCain’s behalf last year.
"During this period, Fiorina was dispatched by the McCain campaign to court a series of pro-abortion audiences. The record of these appearances is, to be charitable, deeply strange for an avowed pro-lifer," he said.
Trevino writes that Fiorina stood by on more than one occasion when McCain was described as pro-abortion without correcting the record. She also went as far as assuring one group that McCain “has never signed on to efforts to overturn Roe vs. Wade.”
"Why would a pro-lifer regard this as a positive attribute to be touted? Why would a pro-lifer sign on as a surrogate for that sort of candidate?" Trevino asked.
As late as September 2008, Fiorina used the phrase, “reproductive rights,” regarding abortion — a phrase that has long come under fire from pro-life advocates because it is a euphemism to promote abortion.
"It seems fairly clear that Carly Fiorina was asked to deliver the message to some groups that John McCain was not particularly pro-life. For whatever reason, the McCain campaign viewed her as a good and trustworthy carrier of this message," Trevino writes. "We are therefore presented with the strange spectacle, in 2008 and since, of Fiorina proclaiming her pro-life sentiments for the first time, even as she amassed a record of publicly delivering a series of cues to the contrary."
"Was Carly Fiorina simply being a good soldier and demonstrating poor judgment? Or was she giving a wink and a nod to her actual, as opposed to her stated, views?" he asks.
He concludes: "Pro-lifers should congratulate Carly Fiorina for her belief in the sanctity of life. But if she wants to claim it as a credit to her electoral ambitions, she has a long road ahead — and some explaining to do about the road behind."
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