Where Do Bush and Gore Stand on Life Issues?

Source: Infonet

Date: November 1, 2000

The following has been prepared to give you a glimpse into the stands of Texas Governor George W. Bush and Vice-President Al Gore on prominent pro-life issues. For more pro-life information, see the Ultimate Pro-Life Resource List at http://www.prolifeinfo.org ABORTION -- BUSH The bottom line for Bush, he said, is that "in an abortion, the baby is innocent." -- Maranatha Christian News Service; September 25, 2000 "Should I be elected, I will lead our nation toward a culture that values life, the life of the elderly and the sick, the life of the young and the life of the unborn,." -- Associated Press; September 30, 2000 "Surely we can agree on ways to value life by promoting adoption and parental notification,'' Bush said. "And when Congress sends me a bill against partial-birth abortion, I will sign it into law." -- Associated Press; September 30, 2000 "One of the things I do in my speeches," Bush told CNS, "and what I'll do as president is to talk about the culture of life, the need for a welcoming society, the need for Americans--no matter what their personal view is on the life issue--that we can do better as a society." -- Maranatha Christian News Service; September 25, 2000 ABORTION -- GORE "America's women have the right to choose, and no one will ever steal that right away. The right to choose is fundamental, lodged in our Constitution affirmed by our Supreme Court. And, on behalf of President Clinton, I vow to you here, and to all listening, that we will not ever let anyone take that right away." -- Gore speech to a National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League luncheon, January, 22, 1997 Gore, when asked the question, Do you believe that life begins at conception? ... "Gore: No. I believe there is a difference. You know, I believe that the Roe vs. Wade decision wisely embodies the kind of common sense judgment that most Americans share." -- NBC's "Meet the Press"; July 17, 2000 ABORTION -- GORE FLIP-FLOP Before flip-flop ... "As you know, I have strongly opposed federal funding of abortions. In my opinion, it is wrong to spend federal funds on what is arguably the taking of a human life ... Let me assure you that I share your belief that innocent human life must be protected." -- Gore letter to a constituent; September 15, 1983 "It is my deep personal conviction that abortion is wrong. I hope that someday we will see the current outrageously large number of abortions drop sharply." -- Gore letter to a constituent; August 22, 1984. "I am a firm supporter of the Hyde amendment." -- Gore letter to National Right to Life; September 10, 1980 After flip-flop... "Then and now I suppose a woman's right to choose and oppose the overturning of Roe v. Wade." -- Gore interview with reporter David Frost; September 24, 1992 "I have not changed ... I have always been against anything that would take away a woman's right to abortion." -- U.S. News and World Report; March 7, 1988 "We've muddled the point, and with luck attention will turn elsewhere -- or at least we'll be lucky enough so the thing doesn't blow into a full-fledged problem before Super Tuesday. In effect, what we have to do is deny, deny, deny." -- A Gore campaign aide explaining the Gore campaign's cover-up of his flip-flop on abortion; U.S. News and World Report; March 7, 1988 Gore was asked if he had voted for an amendment to the 1984 civil rights bill that have the unborn child considered a "person" for purposes of certain civil rights protections. Gore denied the vote. However, an examination of Congressional Record documents shows that on June 26, 1984, Gore did vote in favor of such an amendment -- "Meet the Press;" February 21, 1988 Therefore... "If Gore lies about abortion, what else is he lying about? What other lies would he tell, has he told, in order to enhance his career?" -- Cal Thomas, February 1, 2000 ABORTION -- THEIR RECORDS During his tenure as Governor of Texas, Bush signed a parental notification law -- the state's first pro-life law since its ban on abortion was overturned in the infamous Roe v. Wade Supreme Court case. Bush also worked feverishly to stop a law that would have allowed involuntary euthanasia in Texas. While Governor, Texas saw passage of the nation's first "safe haven" law to help curb the recent rash of infanticides. Bush has also dedicated his time to raise more than $100,000 for pro-life television ads that refer women to crisis pregnancy centers around the state. -- Texas Right to Life Committee During his tenure in the United States Senate from 1985-1992, Gore voted pro-abortion in 32 of 34 votes he cast; in other words, he voted pro-abortion 94% of the time. -- National Right to Life Voting Records. ABORTION -- QUOTES ABOUT BUSH "I was happy to meet Mr. Bush and am grateful for his position on the right to life, which is a breath of fresh air for all of us who have suffered through the Clinton/Gore era." -- Fr. Frank Pavone on Bush; NRL News, May 2000. "He's the most anti-abortion governor in America and supports a constitutional amendment that would take away our right to choose," Gloria Feldt, President of Planned Parenthood on George W. Bush. -- Associated Press; July 12, 2000 "Alan Keyes expressed his support for Gov. George W. Bush and said he had dropped his own campaign against Bush for the Republican nomination. Keyes also said he supports Bush's choice of former Defense Secretary Dick Cheney as his running mate, adding that Cheney's pro-life views mirrored his own." -- Associated Press; July 25, 2000 ABORTION -- QUOTES -- GORE "When it comes to abortion, the death penalty and euthanasia he has a consistent ethic of death. Based on these positions I don't see how anyone who calls him or herself a Catholic can reasonably even consider the possibility of voting for Al Gore." -- Father Peter West, Priests for Life, July 11, 2000 "To Gore's mind, the unborn child's life really has no intrinsic value; only its mother's "right to choose" is absolute, even when her own life is forfeit." -- Joseph Sobran; August 9, 2000 "We plan to spend millions ... trying to persuade [abortion advocates] how important it is to vote for Vice President Gore." -- National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League President Kate Michelman; Reuters; September 13, 2000 ABORTION -- RU 486, BUSH "I think the FDA's decision to approve the abortion pill RU-486 is wrong," Bush said. "We should do everything we can to reduce the number of abortions, and I fear that making this abortion pill widespread will make abortions more and more common, rather than more and more rare. As president, I will work to build a culture that respects life.'' -- Reuters; September 27, 2000 ABORTION -- RU 486, GORE Gore also answered a question regarding RU-486, saying, "I think that [the abortion drug] ought to be available ... and I think what's wrong is to hold it off the market for some kind of political reason." -- Associated Press; September 26, 2000 "The Clinton-Gore administration, which claimed it wanted to make abortion rare, has embraced an abortion pill that will result in more abortions and new risks to women." -- Laura Echevarria, National Right to Life Communications Director, Reuters; September 27, 2000 ABORTION -- SUPREME COURT, BUSH If Bush is elected and gets to appoint more than one justice, it's likely that "Roe v. Wade would be overturned and the (abortion) issue would be returned back to the states." -- Gary Bauer; Associated Press; October 24, 2000 Bush has said he admires Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, two strongly [pro-life] members of the Court. Both would overturn the Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion on demand. Gore has said his favorites are the late Justices Thurgood Marshall and William Brennan. They voted for abortion rights. -- Associated Press; October 24, 2000 ABORTION -- SUPREME COURT, GORE "And when the phrase "strict constructionist" is used, and when the names of Scalia and Thomas are used as benchmarks for who would be appointed, those are code words, and nobody should mistake this, for saying that the governor would appoint people who would overturn Roe v. Wade. I mean, just -- it's very clear to me. And I would appoint people who have a philosophy that I think would make it quite likely that they would uphold Roe v. Wade," Gore concluded. -- Presidential Debate; October 3, 2000 Tom Jipping of the Free Congress Foundation predicted Gore, like Clinton, "will appoint judges who believe they can force their values on the American people.'' -- Associated Press; October 24, 2000 The election could deliver ``more liberal judges'' such as [pro-abortion] Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen G. Breyer advocated by Al Gore, or ``conservative judges'' such as [pro-life] Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas advocated by George W. Bush. -- Pat Robertson, Christian Coalition Founder; Associated Press; September 30, 2000 ABORTION AND THE DEATH PENALTY Gore on whether he would favor the death penalty for a pregnant mother: "Well, I don't know what the circumstances would be in that situation. I would -- you know, its an interesting fact situation. I'd want to think about it." -- NBC's "Meet the Press"; July 17, 2000 Bush said he would oppose such an execution "because there's a second life involved," referring to the unborn child. Bush added: "You shouldn't put a pregnant woman to death." -- Associated Press, Washington Post; July 18, 2000 Later Gore said the "right to choose" would guide his answer to the question... "The principle of a woman's right to choose governs in that case." -- Associated Press, Washington Post; July 18, 2000 ABORTION - STEM CELL RESEARCH Noting that unborn children destroyed to retrieve stem cells, a Bush aide said the Texas governor sides with pro-life lawmakers who would uphold the ban on federal funding for such research. -- Wall Street Journal; May 30, 2000 Gore would attempt to remove the [pro-life] ban and allow federal researchers to use stem cells harvested by privately funded researchers. -- Wall Street Journal; May 30, 2000 ASSISTED SUICIDE -- BUSH "Surely this nation can come together to promote the value of life. Surely we can fight off these laws that will encourage doctors ... to take the lives of our seniors," Bush explained. -- October 3rd Presidential Debate. Bush said that if he is elected president, he would sign a [pro-life] bill headed toward the Senate floor that would stop Oregon doctors from writing lethal prescriptions for drugs regulated under the federal controlled substances act. The bill, the Pain Relief Promotion Act, would stop federally-controlled drugs from being used in assisted suicides and promote euthanasia alternatives. -- Portland Oregonian; May 27, 2000. "First of all, in principle, I'm against assisted suicide, and secondly, I believe it is the prerogative of the federal government to control drug rules," Bush said. "And the idea of using a controlled substance to end somebody's life is something I don't agree with." -- Portland Oregonian; May 27, 2000. ASSISTED SUICIDE -- GORE Al Gore has not said whether he would support the Pain Relief Promotion Act. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore. [an assisted suicide advocate] said Gore told him that he shared Wyden's misgivings about the [pro-life] bill. -- Portland Oregonian; May 27, 2000 DICK CHENEY VS. JOE LIEBERMAN * During his tenure in Congress, from 1979 to 1988, Cheney voted on life issues 23 times and scored a 100% pro-life voting record. Cheney voted in favor of such pro-life legislation as stopping taxpayer funding of abortion, curbing infanticide, revoking funding for international groups that promote or perform abortions, and banning funding of fetal experimentation. Cheney expressed support for a human life amendment and, on June 26, 1984, Cheney voted in favor of the Siljander Amendment to amend a federal civil rights bill to say that "the term 'person' shall include unborn children from the moment of conception." Cheney also co-sponsored the President's Pro-Life Bill. This legislation, a Reagan administration initiative, would repudiate Roe v. Wade and permanently prohibit federal funding of abortion. Cheney has also "expressed opposition to any legislation that would facilitate or permit assisted suicide." -- Associated Press, National Right to Life; July 24, 2000 * In 71 pro-life votes during his tenure in the U.S. Senate, Lieberman supported the pro-life position only twice. From 1990-1999, Lieberman compiled a 97 percent pro-abortion voting record. In 1999, Lieberman voted twice to affirm support for Roe v. Wade. Lieberman has voted to allow taxpayer-funding of abortion, to support fetal tissue research, and he's voted four times against a ban on partial-birth abortion. The National Abortion Rights Action League gave him an 'A' grade, based on his voting record on pro-abortion issues. Lieberman drew the ire of pro-life advocates in 1991. During the preliminary stages of the confirmation process for eventual pro-life Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas, Lieberman gave a strongly supportive speech. According to the New Haven Register, Lieberman's 22 year-old daughter lobbied him and Lieberman subsequently changed his stance and voted against Thomas' confirmation. Had only two more senators joined Lieberman, Thomas would not have been approved for the Supreme Court. -- Associated Press, National Right to Life, Reuters, August 7, 2000; New Haven Register, October 16, 1991 -- Please pass this factsheet along to pro-life friends and family. Paid for by the Republicans for Life PAC, not authorized by any candidate.