North Carolina Democrats Feud Over Which Candidate is More Pro-Abortion

State   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Aug 30, 2007   |   9:00AM   |   WASHINGTON, DC

North Carolina Democrats Feud Over Which Candidate is More Pro-Abortion Email this article
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
August 30,
2007

Raleigh, NC (LifeNews.com) — Two North Carolina Democrats are feuding over which one most strongly supports legalized abortion and making taxpayers fund it with public money. The debate isn’t likely to endear either candidate to pro-life voters in the southern state.

Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue is slated to face state Treasurer Richard Moore in the state’s 2008 primary in May. Though the election is nine months away, the contest has already gotten heated.

Stephanie Dorko, Moore’s finance director, passed around an email yesterday to leading political activists criticizing Perdue’s abortion record. Her email is a response to an invitation she received to join a group of women backing Perdue’s re-election.

"I am uncomfortable with Beverly Perdue’s wavering position on choice," Dorko wrote, according to a Charlotte News and Observer report. "Over the course of her public career, she has taken a variety of conflicting positions on a women’s right to choose."

According to the newspaper, Dorko claimed that Perdue, when she was the head of the state Senate’s appropriations committee in 1995, nearly cut all of the state funds to help poor women pay for abortions.

At the time, North Carolina was one of a handful of states to use taxpayer funds to pay for abortions.

Dorko also criticized Perdue for answers to a political questionnaire sponsored by a national non-partisan group in which Perdue said abortions should only be legal in the rare cases of rape, incest or when the mother’s life is in danger.

David Kochman, Perdue’s spokesman, told the News and Observer that Perdue maintains a strongly pro-abortion position, despite Dorko’s claims.

"It’s just another desperate distortion from the same campaign that attacked the teachers last week," he said.

"Beverly Perdue is strongly pro-choice. That’s why this year, she’s already been endorsed by the Women’s Campaign Forum and in previous campaigns by groups such as NARAL," Kochman added.

"Her position has developed over the years just as Richard Moore’s positions have on so many other issues. But she is the pro-choice candidate in the race," he told the newspaper.

Related web sites:
North Carolina Right to Life – https://www.ncrtlpac.com