NARAL Ad Links John Roberts With Abortion Clinic Bombers

By Susan Jones
CNSNews.com Senior Editor
August 9, 2005

(CNSNews.com) -- NARAL Pro-Choice America, a pro-abortion advocacy group, has launched a nationwide television ad campaign linking Supreme Court nominee John Roberts with "anti-choice extremists who use bombings and other forms of intimidation against women, doctors, and nurses at women's health clinics."

Republican and pro-life groups immediately denounced the ad campaign as false and misleading.
The new NARAL ad focuses on Roberts' 1991 friend-of-the-court brief filed on behalf of Operation Rescue in the Supreme Court case Bray v. Alexandria Women's Health Clinic -- a case arising from pro-life demonstrations outside abortion clinics.

Abortion rights groups compared the protesters' actions to the violence and intimidation carried out by the Ku Klux Klan.

But in 1993, the Supreme Court rejected the comparison, ruling that the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871 could not be used against pro-life demonstrators; and that abortion protesters were not discriminating against women as a class.

NARAL says the defendants in the Bray case included "violent anti-choice activists Randall Terry, founder of Operation Rescue; Michael Bray, who had been convicted for his involvement in 10 bombings at health centers in the 1980s; and Patrick Mahoney, a consultant to Operation Rescue."

NARAL and other abortion supporters are criticizing Roberts for arguing that Operation Rescue's "unlawful behavior did not amount to discrimination against women." (The Supreme Court decided that opposition to abortion was focused on the destruction of human life, not on the women who were seeking an abortion.)

"In the four years before John Roberts argued Bray vs. Alexandria Women's Health Clinic in front of the Supreme Court, anti-choice radicals were responsible for at least 48 bombings and arsons in 24 states, along with 57 acid attacks, more than 4,000 disruptive acts such as bomb threats, harassing calls and hate mail," said Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, at a press conference on Monday.

"I want to be very clear that we are not suggesting Mr. Roberts condones or supports clinic violence. I'm sure he finds bombings and murder abhorrent. But still his ideological view of the law compelled him to go out of his way to argue on behalf of someone like Michael Bray, who had already been convicted of a string of bombings," Keenan said.

Keenan said NARAL's job is "to let the American people know that John Roberts's record demonstrates hostility" toward the "core values" of "personal freedom and personal responsibility."

"This ad showing a disturbing part of Roberts' record is even more important since the White House decided to withhold critical information about Roberts from the public," she said.
Keenan was joined at the press conference by Emily Lyons, a former nurse at a Birmingham, Ala., abortion clinic who was seriously injured when Eric Rudolph bombed the clinic in 1998.

'Outrageous'
"It is stunning that any group would put together an ad with the false and outrageous claims that NARAL has today," said Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman.

"By attempting to assert that Judge Roberts supports shameful criminal acts, NARAL has shown how far they will go to slander a good man for political gain. Organizations like NARAL that go to these lengths only serve to denigrate the confirmation process and are drastically out-of-touch with the American people."

The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) said NARAL's television ads are a "smear campaign designed to ignore the facts and make assertions that are simply untrue."

Jay Sekulow, chief counsel of the ACLJ, argued the Bray case before the Supreme Court.

He says the Supreme Court correctly concluded that the application of the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871 could not be used against pro-life demonstrators. "Those involved in the case worked to ensure that a misapplication of the statute would not be allowed to continue," Sekulow said.

"There are many laws on the books that criminalize violence -- including violent activity outside abortion clinics. Protecting the constitutional rights of the pro-life community does not equate to endorsing violence," he said.

According to Sekulow, the ACLJ and others repeatedly have condemned those who resort to violence in the name of the pro-life movement. Therefore, he said, NARAL Pro-Choice America is being "disingenuous" in its ads.

"We believe the American people will not fall for this smear campaign," Sekulow concluded.

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If any VRWC reader with more than one functional brain cell thought for two seconds that the upcoming confirmation hearings were going to be anything less than an all-out brawl, then they were kidding themselves.

When John G. Roberts' nomination was announced by President George W. Bush, several Democrats stepped forward in support, and even the harshest critics, such as the good Senator Teddy Chappaquiddick, as well as the recently spanked Big Dick Durban, seemed to withhold judgment.

It almost seemed, for that first day or so, as if there wouldn't be much of a fight.

RIGHT!!

Sooner or later, the people for whom abortion is the #1 issue in their lives were going to weigh in. There are groups of people on both sides of the issue that go to bed and wake up thinking about nothing but abortion, . . . whether for it, or against it.

It defines their political beliefs, whom they vote for and it's all they care about.

We call them, “One-Issue Voters.”

Funny thing is that they seem so much more vehement and adamant when they’re AGAINST and issue, or a candidate, (just ask John Forbes Kerry), rather than FOR an issue, or candidate. So now the ones who are AGAINST John G. Roberts, have begun to come out against him, and in a really big way.

The story above is about the first battleground: a TV ad being run by NARAL, the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League.

As you might guess from their title, this is a pro-choice group. Many of us, who reside on the other side of the isle, call them “pro-abortion,” because that’s exactly what they are. The only problem with their television ad is it's a HUGE lie.

This should come as no surprise, . . . political groups run such propaganda all the time. The ad shows a 1998 Birmingham, Alabama abortion clinic that had been bombed. The ad accuses John Roberts of filing legal papers in support of the bomber.

The only problem?? . . . John Roberts signed the legal briefing AS AN ATTORNEY, ADVOCATING FOR A CLIENT, a full SEVEN YEARS before the bombing, clearly having nothing to do with the actions of the bomber.

The ad has been found to be false by, among others, Factcheck.org. The real shame here? CNN has agreed to run the ad, in exchange for $125,000. Being from Omaha, the city that famed financial guru, Warren Buffet calls home, and whose wife passed away, earlier this year, and left millions to the NARAL group, I can’t help but wonder how many Omaha dollars went toward that small payment, and how much it will effect the future of America. That's too bad.

I KNOW that John G. Roberts won’t consider that, when he decides cases that effect the lives of Omaha families, because I know he has far more character than either Warren Buffet or his deceased wife, . . . have mercy on her soul, . . . . as it’s surely doing time somewhere besides heaven!

God Bless,
Dan’L