Democrat presidential candidates Bill Bradley and Al Gore are busy
attempting to convince their party's voters that they are more pro-choice
than the other. Bradley recently stated, "I have always been pro-choice and
I always will be."
However, I remember during Bradley's days as a professional basketball
player that he actually portrayed himself as a born-again Christian. There
were even gospel tracts featuring Bradley's testimony that were collected by
young sports fans. Those tracts detailed the man's life of Christian faith.
Bradley has, in recent years, distanced himself from those values and is
now openly pro-choice -- a position that, in my opinion, dramatically
counters the biblical sanctity of life. (As King David wrote in Psalm 139,
"For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother's womb. I will
praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your
works, And that my soul knows very well.") It saddens me to observe
Bradley's transformation from Christian advocate to liberal activist who
favors abortion.
Gore has also attempted to present himself as a lifelong abortion
campaigner, but the facts (as usual, for the vice president) reflect a
contradictory history. "Al Gore has always been pro-choice throughout his
career," recently stated Chris Lehane, Gore campaign spokesman. However, as
a Tennessee congressman, Gore frequently adopted a pro-life platform, even
receiving an 84 percent favorable rating from the National Right to Life
Committee in 1984. And in a 1984 letter to a constituent, Gore wrote of a
"deep personal conviction that abortion is wrong."
In 1988, during his first presidential quest, Gore began embracing
pro-choice positions and distancing himself from his former policies. "I
have not changed," he stated in a U.S. News & World Report interview. "I
have always been against anything that would take away a woman's right to
have an abortion."
It seems Mr. Gore's penchant for exaggeration is not a new phenomenon. (I
often wonder how his supporters continually gloss over the fact that Gore
repeatedly gets caught in these blatant fabrications.)
Even pro-choice leaders appear to be growing cynical regarding Gore's
untruths on abortion.
"It's OK to change your mind, but if you don't trust us enough as a
leader to tell us the truth and tell us why, I'm not interested in electing
you," Mary Rauh, former president of Planned Parenthood of New England, told
the Associated Press.
The saddest part of Gore's fading support of the right to life is that it
appears it was a strictly political decision. Of course, Gore is not the
first politician to abandon his defense of the unborn for political profit.
President Bill Clinton, House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt, Massachusetts
Sen. Ted Kennedy and political activist Jesse Jackson were all once vocal
pro-life advocates.
In a 1998 article titled "Political Turncoats," conservative journalist
Mark Collette detailed the prior pro-life positions of each of these men.
"Clinton's position changed as his presidential ambitions grew," Collette
reported.
Today, all five of these political leaders -- all former defenders of the
sanctity of life -- even defend the indescribably horrific act of
partial-birth abortion. Clinton, Gore, Kennedy, and Gephardt have sold their
political souls in exchange for votes and acceptance by the Democratic
establishment. The abandonment of innocent lives for the sake of pleasing
liberal voters is, in my opinion, an unpardonable political act. I believe
that deep in their hearts, many pro-choice advocates
comprehend the danger of the position they have embraced.
I particularly lament Jesse Jackson's abandonment of life. I consider
Jesse a trusted friend, even though we dramatically disagree on many
political issues. I often imagine what a powerful advocate for the unborn
this gifted orator would be if he would return to his early pro-life
heritage.
Nevertheless, it remains fashionable in our nation to promote abortion as
an end to pregnancy. Meanwhile, while our leaders play political games, our
nation's abortion death toll stands at 35 million ... and counting.