Rhode Island Governor Chafee Puts Abortion Doc on Transition Team

State   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Nov 9, 2010   |   7:52PM   |   Providence, RI

Newly-elected Rhode Island governor Lincoln Chafee is no strange to promoting abortion, as he compiled a strongly pro-abortion record during his tenure in Congress. Now he’s taking that to new levels.

Chafee, who won office as an Independent, has appointed a transition team that includes an abortion practitioner who admits he has done abortions in an undisclosed South American country where abortion is illegal.

Chafee appointed Pablo Rodriguez, who formerly served as Medical Director of Planned Parenthood of Rhode Island.

In 2000, Rodriguez wrote an essay about his abortion work in an unnamed Andean country where he mused about the irony of doing illegal abortions in a room with images of Jesus and Mary hanging on the wall, and made references to the religious protesters outside his Rhode Island abortion clinic.

According to the essay, dug up by the pro-life group Operation Rescue, Rodriguez lamented the possibility of restrictions on abortions in the United States and voiced gratification that he had trained “cholitas” in the Andes to manage “the complications of unintended pregnancy,” his euphemism for abortion.

“I never thought that I would be performing an abortion in a room with a picture of Jesus and the Virgin Mary, but there I was, in the middle of the Andes,” Rodriguez wrote in the opening statement of his essay.

Responding to the essay and the appointment, OR president Troy Newman emailed LifeNews.com:  “Chafee’s appointment of an abortionist who admits not only to doing illegal abortions, but has trained others to do them, is one that shows a gross lack of good judgment.”

“We call on Mr. Chafee to replace Pablo Rodriguez as soon as possible with someone who has not made a living taking the lives of innocent children through abortion,” he said.

Barth Bracy, the director of Rhode Island Right to Life, emailed LifeNews.com about the appointment.

“Chafee’s appointment of Pablo Rodriguez reveals a serious lapse of judgment on the part of the Governor-elect. He claims that he wants to avoid divisiveness and unite the citizens of Rhode Island and then proceeds to appoint an abortionist and radical abortion advocate to his transition team. It seems that Chafee is already positioning himself to replicate in Rhode Island what Obama accomplished on the national stage,” he said.

In the gubernatorial race, Chafee took on Democrat Frank Caprio and the state’s pro-life group endorsed Republican John Robitaille.
 
In July, the political action committee of Rhode Island State Right to Life announced an endorsement for governor and said “John Robitaille has promised that, as Governor, he will ensure that every citizen will have a voice at the State House. And we are confident this promise applies to human beings at every stage of development.”