The Rev. Lou Sheldon trashes pro-lifers
odd Akin, Jo Ann Davis, Randy Forbes, Virgil Goode, Jim Demint, John Shadegg, Pat Toomey, Tom Tancredo: All of these congressmen had 100-percent ratings from the National Right to Life Committee for the last Congress. They have something else in common, too: They're the targets of a direct-mail campaign by the Traditional Values Coalition that questions their commitment to the unborn. That campaign has other social conservatives questioning the TVC's motives.
At issue is a bill, sponsored by pro-lifers Gil Gutknecht of Minnesota and Jo Ann Emerson of Missouri, that would allow people to import prescription drugs from other countries. The idea is that American consumers would be able to benefit from Canadian price controls. The pharmaceutical industry and the Bush administration have long (and plausibly) contended that opening the borders to medicine would also let in drugs that are illegal or dangerous. The TVC has added a new twist to the argument: Allowing imports would let RU-486 in, thus undermining the regulation of the abortion pill. The TVC is therefore going after at least 25 pro-life congressmen who support the idea. If the bill becomes law, their mailers say, RU-486 "may become as easy to get as aspirin." The TVC continues: "Call Congressman Kevin Brady. . . . Don't let him forget the sanctity of life." It even insinuates that liberalizing the bill was designed, in part, for the purpose of relaxing controls on RU-486.
The TVC's claims aren't true. The importation bill does not make it legal, or likely, that people are going to be able to get RU-486 along with aspirin at a 7-11. As a matter of law, the importation bill does not appear to override all other regulations. You would still need a prescription to get the covered drugs, they would still have to be labeled — and RU-486 would still have to be taken in front of a doctor, with three mandatory appointments including a check-up a day later. Doctors, not individuals, would be allowed to import RU-486. The FDA would be able to tell Customs officials that any RU-486 shipments are very likely to be illegal, and therefore to make it an enforcement priority. It is true that it would be impossible to enforce these regulations perfectly; but that is true currently. And in any case, the argument TVC makes in a letter to congressmen is about the legal effects of the bill, not about enforcement.
The Congressional Research Service has concluded that a key part of the TVC's argument is wrong, although Rep. Gutknecht has not yet released the findings. Tom Coburn, who sponsored legislation to ban RU-486 when he was an Oklahoma Republican congressman, has issued a letter sharply criticizing the TVC's campaign. New Jersey Republican Chris Smith — the leader of House pro-lifers — supports the importation bill. With the exception of the Rev. Jerry Falwell, no pro-life organization or spokesman agrees with TVC's analysis.
Even opponents of the bill disagree with the TVC. I spoke with an FDA official, himself pro-life, who said, "There are 900 million reasons to be against re-importation. That one seems quite remote." Congressman Joe Pitts, a Pennsylvania Republican, opposes the Gutknecht-Emerson bill, but is appalled by the attack on his fellow pro-lifers. Colin Stewart, executive vice president of the Family Research Council, is another opponent of the bill. But he mildly rebuked the TVC in a fax to his organization's supporters on Tuesday: "Some organizations are straining to turn a bill allowing the re-importation of American-made pharmaceuticals from Canada into a pro-life issue. It isn't."
A spokesman for Gutknecht says that the TVC did not raise its concerns about the bill with him before launching its attack. That's also what aides to several of the targeted Republicans told me. Not talking to people has led to at least one mistake: The TVC has gone after Jeff Miller of Florida, who's against importation.
Some social conservatives are suggesting that the TVC was paid off by the pharmaceutical lobby. Mike Schwartz, a vice president of Concerned Women for America, says that several social-conservative organizations were offered money in return for making the RU-486 arguments. Most of them turned it down, he said, citing Eric Licht of Coalitions for America and social-conservative lawyer Pat Trueman in particular. Trueman declined to be interviewed on the record. Licht confirmed that he was approached "preliminarily, hypothetically about some things we could do." He adds, "I didn't feel comfortable with it so I said no." He says that he was not contacted by the pharmaceutical industry, but declines to answer whether a lobbyist for the industry made the offer.
The big drug-industry lobby — the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, or PhRMA — is not publicly involved in the RU-486 campaign. But its fingerprints are on it. A memorandum explaining that the bill would unleash a flood of RU-486 made the rounds on Capitol Hill. It was in Word format, and when its "Properties" were looked up (check the File menu to see what I mean) it turned out to have been written by one Bruce Kuhlik — a lawyer for PhRMA.
This is not the first time questions have been raised about the TVC. In 1998, the TVC defended pro-choice Republican Senate candidate Matt Fong from the attacks of primary opponent Darrell Issa, who was running as a pro-life conservative — after Fong donated $50,000 to the group. In 1999, the Orange County Register reported that the gambling interests had given money both to TVC founder Lou Sheldon and his son in return for their lobbying support.
Schwartz, the Concerned Women for America vice president, does not mince words about Falwell and Sheldon. "I am ashamed to be in the same business with these people. It is lying to the grassroots by people whom they believe are sincerely interested in the cause, not in payoffs to tell lies."
Conservative congressmen are considering excluding the TVC from future meetings on the Hill (although Tom DeLay is sticking up for it). They believe PhRMA is behind the attacks. In Republican ranks, the furor over the TVC is now overshadowing the substantive arguments against Gutknecht's bill. Rep. Akin says, "I think it actually is going to really backfire, especially if it's proven that this thing was paid for by drug-industry money." Rep. Toomey agrees: "I don't think there's a single pro-life member of the House who is supporting this bill who is going to change his position because of this. I think it's just going to dig people in deeper."
The House Republican leadership, like the White House and PhRMA, wants that bill dead. It ought to have a word with its allies about what kinds of attacks on its members it is prepared to tolerate.
UPDATE
Since filing this story, I have learned that a set of talking points on the bill's alleged effects on RU-486, released under the TVC letterhead, was also written by PhRMA's Bruce Kuhlik.
UPDATE II
A spokesman for PhRMA refuses to discuss the organization's involvement in the TVC campaign: "Unfortunately we have an ironclad rule and we don't discuss strategy." He also says that the organization takes no position on how widely available RU-486 should be.
