LifeNews.com View: Reject Pro-Abortion Rudy Giuliani for GOP Nomination

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LifeNews.com View: Reject Pro-Abortion Rudy Giuliani for GOP Nomination
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by Steven Ertelt

January 1, 2008


LifeNews.com Note: Steven Ertelt is the editor of LifeNews.com and this editorial represents the views of the pro-life news service. Ertelt has worked for numerous pro-life groups over the years as executive and legislative director and serves on the board of a local crisis pregnancy center. When Iowa Republicans head to party meetings on Thursday night to cast their ballots for a candidate to represent the GOP in this year's presidential election, they should reject Rudy Giuliani. The former mayor has a long pro-abortion record and his recent attempts to moderate his image are disingenuous.
In a previous editorial, I wrote that Rudy Giuliani would not ultimately win the Republican nomination and pointed to his pro-abortion views as the main reason why.
Since then, Giuliani's poll numbers in Iowa, New Hampshire and elsewhere have continued to decline and reporters recently asked him if he thought he was still relevant to the campaign. That's a sure sign of defeat and it mitigates the main reason -- the notion he is the best candidate to win the nomination and general election -- some pro-life advocates initially backed Giuliani.


GOP voters in Iowa have several candidates to choose from who are claiming the pro-life mantle and, while they each have their pros and cons, any of them would be better than Giuliani.
Giuliani has been crystal clear in his support for abortion and said in no uncertain terms in a November debate that he would not sign a bill banning abortions.
"I don't believe ... that [abortion] should be criminalized," he said at the time.
As a means of trying to persuade pro-life advocates that he's more moderate on abortion than his public image would lead them to believe, he claims he will appoint "strict constructionists" to the Supreme Court.
Yet, he's admitted that the judges he appoints may not necessarily overturn Roe v. Wade and could be just as likely to uphold the landmark abortion case.
Sadly, some pro-life advocates, including Pat Robertson and some members of Congress, have endorsed Giuliani.
But the question remains: Why should pro-life advocates trust an abortion proponent to appoint judges more likely to overturn Roe when they have candidates to choose from with clear pro-life records on abortion saying they, too, will appoint judges who won't legislate from the bench?
They shouldn't -- despite the endorsements from Pat Robertson and some pro-life elected officials.
Pro-life Iowa Republicans, which amount to 75 percent of the caucus polls show, must remember the former mayor was so supportive of abortion during his tenure in office that Giuliani and his former wife Donna Hanover made several donations to Planned Parenthood, the nation's largest abortion business, in the 1990s totaling $900.
Then, Giuliani tried to dismiss the contributions as a means of promoting adoption -- despite figures showing Planned Parenthood does 255,015 abortions and refers a mere 1,414 customers to adoption agencies.
Along the same lines, Giuliani has frequently repeated his claim that he promoted adoption as mayor and that they helped reduce abortions there.
A political science professor who cataloged Giuliani's press conferences says he never recalls hearing the mayor promote adoption during them and an independent political watchdog confirmed that Giuliani's adoption claims don't square with the facts. Even abortion advocates scoffed at the claims.
Iowa Republicans should also remember Giuliani's flip-flops on partial-birth abortion and taxpayer funding of abortions. The flip-flop attention has largely been on Mitt Romney, but Giuliani has never been able to get his story straight about whether he thinks you should pay for abortions.


Ultimately, I believe Thursday's vote will be the beginning of the end for Giuliani. The latest polls show him in a likely fifth or sixth place there and, should he place behind Ron Paul after the votes are tallied, I think we'll start to see media stories on whether he can survive an expected second poor showing in New Hampshire.
Giuliani won't and he will join the ranks of Pete Wilson, Arlen Specter and Morry Taylor -- other pro-abortion Republicans who tried to foist themselves on a largely pro-life political party.