Free Republic

INDIANOLA, Iowa — Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson today defended his opposition to a federal constitutional amendment to ban abortion and contended it was more realistic to appoint conservative judges to outlaw abortion or let the states decide whether the procedure should be legal. Thompson's comments, made during a swing through Iowa, where his campaign has languished in its early stages, also came on the eve of his candidacy's expected endorsement by the National Right to Life Committee. "What I have concentrated on is a way to get to the same goal (to ban abortion) that's achievable. We could not...

Thompson to Be Endorsed by Right to Life Nov 12 02:18 PM US/Eastern By LIZ SIDOTI Associated Press Writer INDIANOLA, Iowa (AP) - Fred Thompson will be endorsed for president by the National Right to Life Committee, Republicans say. The endorsement by the prominent anti-abortion group could give a boost to the campaign of the Republican former Tennessee senator, who has seen his poll numbers drop in recent weeks and has failed to become the consensus candidate for conservatives. The decision was disclosed Monday by two Republicans who spoke on condition of anonymity in advance of the announcement that was...

Fred Thompson will pick up the support of the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC) tomorrow, according to two Republicans familar with the decision. For a candidate who came up empty-handed last week when three prominent Christian conservatives endorsed GOP hopefuls and is falling in both national and early state polls, the move comes at a critical time. NRLC is the most prominent anti-abortion group in the country, with affiliates in all 50 states and over 3,000 local chapters. A spokesperson for the organization declined to comment on their endorsement decision, but Thompson was likely rewarded for his strong pro-life...

The head of National Right to life says he's not troubled by Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson's opposition to federal legislation ending abortion, and therefore right-to-life activists across the U.S. should not be troubled as well. The former Tennessee senator has drawn the consternation of some, but not all pro-life activists after saying that even though he believes life begins at conception, he would not support a federal constitutional amendment banning abortions. Thompson stated Sunday on NBC's Meet the Press: "I think people ought to be free at state and local levels to make decisions that even Fred Thompson disagrees...

The doctor known as the founder of the pro-life movement has endorsed former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney in his bid for the Republican presidential nomination. Dr. John Wilke, an original member of Senator Sam Brownback's Exploratory Committee, has thrown his support to Romney in the wake of Senator Brownback's withdrawal from the race. "Unlike other candidates who only speak to the importance of confronting the major social issues of the day, Governor Romney has a record of action in defending life," Dr. Willke said. "Every decision he made as governor was on the side of life. I know he will...

Prominent evangelical Mark DeMoss recently circulated a letter to leaders of evangelical organizations urging support for Governor Mitt Romney. His point: the Republican Party will likely pick a Presidential nominee in the next 100 days (by February 5th) and, unless social conservatives rally behind Mitt Romney, the nominee will be Rudy Giuliani. I share Mark's choice of Mitt Romney and the urgency of Mark's call. While several of the other candidates are certainly fine social conservatives, none has established his viability as a serious presidential contender. Only Mitt Romney has the resources to compete with Rudy Giuliani for the nomination....

I didn't relish the prospect of spending my evening sitting in on a National Organization of Women event, but I couldn't help but be curious. A colleague of mine had chanced upon an announcement for the monthly meeting where feminist reporter Eleanor Bader would be speaking about her experience after "infiltrating" the National Right to Life Committee Convention this past June. How could I pass up the opportunity to hear some of "the other side's" observations about pro-lifers? Walking into the meeting that evening, I couldn't help but feel a little apprehensive. My goal was to sit in on the...

Fred Thompson, running for President as the "plain-speaking consistent conservative," was asked about campaign finance reform by Laura Ingraham on her radio show the day after his Presidential announcement. She said, "One of the things that also happened in the Senate was McCain-Feingold and it was initially called McCain-Feingold-Thompson. Of course that's campaign finance reform. As you know, Senator Thompson, the Supreme Court has struck down part of that as unconstitutional on First Amendment grounds, you know, issue ads that you can't run before a general election or a primary contest, which for conservatives like me are just anathema to...

http://www.nrlc.org/Election2008/allcandidatescomparison08.13.07.pdf

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- A top pro-life organization is asking members of the House to vote against a bill concerning Medicare over concerns that it could lead to euthanasia. National Right to Life wants lawmakers to oppose the Children's Health and Medicare Protection Act (CHAMP Act) because it could ration lifesaving medical treatment. NRLC says the bill, in its current form, would "prevent older Americans from protecting themselves from rationing."Under the legislation, seniors would be prevented from adding their own money on top of what the government will pay in order to get Medicare health insurance less likely to ration...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- A leading pro-life organization is concerned that the Senate could adopt amendments to a SCHIP reauthorization bill that could prevent older Americans from protecting themselves from health care rationing. The group says that such rationing can easily lead to the withdrawal of lifesaving medical treatment and euthanasia. The National Right to Life Committee sent a letter to members of the Senate Thursday a forwarded a copy to LifeNews.com.As reported from the Senate Finance Committee, the SCHIP reauthorization bill does not contain provisions similar to those reported from committees considering the companion bill on the House side.NRLC...

It appears that there is an attempt to create confusion regarding former Senator Fred Thompson’s pro-life position. You can go to National Right to Life’s website to see Senator Thompson’s voting record against abortion, euthanasia, and experimentation on unborn babies’ bodies. As you can see, Senator Thompson had an excellent pro-life voting record while in the U.S. Senate. I am concerned that someone may be misleading you about his record. Regardless, I assure you it was not from National Right to Life. National Right to Life PAC supported Senator Thompson for the U.S. Senate in 1994 and 1996, and considered...

The Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Travesty By Brian Rohrbough This past month, five WND pieces have run regarding our widely-publicized open letters to Dr. James Dobson in which we document the 30-year failure of the pro-life movement. Long ago, National Right To Life devised a strategy of introducing laws to regulate child-killing, and now in order to defend those immoral tactics, many of our greatest Christian leaders have adopted the secular humanist principle of moral relativism. The bad fruit of all this is a federal judiciary stacked with Republican pro-choice judges who reject the personhood of the child, and who issue...

Today in Kansas City Missouri, National Right to Life's board of directors voted to disenfranchise a state chapter, Colorado Right To Life, from the umbrella organization. Two days ago, Dr. James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, admitted in a mass email that, "Ending partial-birth abortion... does not save a single human life." [snip] "We will tell the truth that National Right To Life doesn't want told," said Brian Rohrbough, president of Colorado Right To Life, "that NRTL advocates a strategy of child-killing regulations that undermine personhood and distract from the real battle." And Leslie Hanks, V.P. of Colorado...

Kansas City, MO (LifeNews.com) -- Fred Thompson hasn't announced his candidacy for the GOP nomination for president, but he looked like one when addressing the National Right to Life convention last week. Thompson sent a video message to the 1,200 attendees and said he opposed both abortion and embryonic stem cell research. The video showed the former Tennessee senator with his wife and two young girls and he told pro-life advocates that his family helps him appreciate pro-life values. “When I was in the Senate a lot of people would come to see me and it usually would have to...

Kansas City, MO (LifeNews.com) -- Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney led off a GOP presidential forum the National Right To Life Committee held on Friday at its national convention. He told the more than a thousand convention-goers that he shares their strong opposition to abortion even though he only arrived at a pro-life position recently. "I am humbled to be standing among the many who have toiled for the pro-life movement for so long, when I arrived at this place of principle only a few years ago,” he told the crowd. He said he appreciated the "decades of dedication and...

Mitt Romney spoke Friday afternoon to the National Right to Life Convention, the same group that Fred Thompson addressed via video on Thursday as Tommy reported for R4′08 — and he hit a homerun for the pro-life and social conservative crowd with his speech. He managed to defend himself against the attacks of his opponents and not sound victimized, and also laid out a great vision for the social conservative movement. Some excerpts: “I know that it is not time but conviction that unites us. I proudly follow a long line of converts – George Herbert Walker Bush, Henry...

In case you're curious how a conservative Republican became Governor of the most liberal state in the Country. This is an excerpt from Mitt Romney's speech at the National Right To Life Convention Forum: People often ask me how a conservative Republican such as myself could have been elected in Massachusetts. I tell them that there were three things that helped account for my improbable victory. First, the state was in a fiscal crisis. A meltdown, of sorts. State government couldn't get budgets done on time. Another big tax hike looked like it was on the way. I promised to...

KANSAS CITY, Missouri, June 15, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In a taped message, US President George Bush praised the National Right to Life Committee—currently meeting at their national convention in Kansas City, Missouri—as “fearless shepherds of the innocent and the unborn” and called abortion “one of the greatest moral issues of our time”. To almost 1000 members and supporters of the Committee, Bush said, “You've helped our citizens understand that the mark of a great nation is that it has respect for human life. You have welcomed the unborn in life and protected them in law.” Bush spoke mainly of his...

Paul Greenberg, the distinguished speaker at the closing banquet of the NRL Convention in Nashville, gave us the expression "slick Willie" to describe Bill Clinton. As a candidate, "slick Willie," in 1992, declared ever so sincerely that "abortion should be safe, legal, and rare." It sounded so sensible; but it was, in fact, misleading, dishonest, and nonsensical. Today's re-emergence of the slogan (and its variants) that "abortion should be safe, legal, and rare" did not, of course, arise by spontaneous combustion. No, there is pleading and bleating for a "middle ground" on abortion, because it sounds like the perfect double...