Abortion Distortion

I've made it pretty clear on this blog that I support women's reproductive rights. I need not go into another extensive discussion of why I so believe.

Abortion being one of the hot-button topics in politics, and with what appears to be a constant discussion about either (1) the desperate need to reverse Roe v. Wade (right wing pundits), or (2) the imminent assault on Roe by conservatives (from the left), attention has of course turned to John Roberts, President Bush's nominee to succeed Sandra Day O'Connor on the high court.

NARAL Pro-Choice America has leapt to the forefront of the fray against Roberts by running an ad linking Judge Roberts (then a Solicitor General with the G.H.W.B. administration) to extremist anti-abortion groups that bomb abortion clinics.

Unfortunately, the ad is completely false. At best, it is wildly misleading.

I'm not going to repeat what factcheck.org says about the ad, because the facts speak for themselves.

I, for one, am immensely disappointed that NARAL would resort such blanant inaccuracies and misrepresentations. Even though I agree that abortion should remain legal and Roe should be preserved, these tactics are beyond the pale.

I signed up to receive NARAL's e-newsletter when I participated in the March for Women's Lives a few years ago. I have decided that if they don't adequately address their misdeeds in their next email to me, I will remove myself from their list and decline to provide any financial support for them in the future. I know that I am but one small drop in their bucket. It is my hope that I'm not the only one out there who is so disgusted with this ad that they also walk away from NARAL.

The Washington Post puts it best: "NARAL is certainly within its rights to disagree with the position the government took in the case. But the impression it creates with this ad is not an argument but a smear -- a smear that will do less to discredit Judge Roberts than it will the organization that created it."