Oct 5, 2001 From NJ-RTL
Dear Friends:
This has been a long time coming but McGreevey finally admits he lied when he said he has always supported abortion. The startling part is that he has gone from being pro-life to voting to keep partial birth abortion legal. Talk about extremes.
Don't be fooled by his claim that he supports parental notification laws either. These abortion groups would have never endorsed him if they didn't have a commitment from him that he would veto any meaningful bill. He used his influence to make sure no Democrat Senator voted for the Parental Notification constitutional amendment when it was voted on in the Senate last June.
The Parental Notification Constitution Amendment got a simple majority of votes instead of the 3/5 majority it would've received had McGreevey not weighed in. The Parental Notif Const. Amendment is still very much alive by the way but will not be if McGreevey is elected Governor.
McGreevey also came out with a proposal for funding school based clinics yesterday for the special needs districts. I think this needs to be scrutinized very carefully. Will Planned Parenthood be involved? Was this the quid pro quo for their endorsement of McGreevey? With four weeks to go, we need to get the word out. Letters to the editor would be helpful.
It is also noteworthy that this is the second time McGreevey was forced to admit he lied about his past.
Abortion activists endorse McGreevey
10/05/01
BY JEFF WHELAN
STAR-LEDGER STAFF
Democrat Jim McGreevey won the endorsement of several abortion rights groups yesterday, including the National Organization for Women, which 12 years ago labeled him "anti-abortion" and refused to support him as a legislative candidate.
The endorsements by Planned Parenthood and NOW were widely expected in a race in which abortion has become a defining issue.
But for McGreevey, like many Catholic politicians, the journey to yesterday's announcement was an uneasy one. He acknowledged, for the first time, in an interview last night that he opposed abortion rights as an Assembly candidate in 1989, and that it was not until he was in the Legislature that he changed his mind.
That is a departure from what he has said in the past. As a gubernatorial candidate four years ago, McGreevey insisted in a televised debate: "I have always been consistently pro-choice."
At the time, Rep. Robert Andrews, his rival for the Democratic nomination, was hammering at what he said was McGreevey's equivocation on the abortion issue. Polls show a large majority of New Jerseyans believe the procedure should be legal.
McGreevey, a former altar boy who was active in the Metuchen Diocese and was a lector at his parish, said last night he grappled with the issue in his first campaign in 1989. "At an earlier point, I was pro-life," he said.
Asked when he switched his position, he said, "I believe it was when I confronted these choices when I was taking office, and it became particularly clarified when I was in the state Legislature. . . . During my freshman year, I sought counseling, I sought direction, as I continue to do, from a wide variety of individuals, including clergy and physicians."
In the end, he said, he concluded that although he personally opposed abortion, he would work to protect the constitutional right to have one.
"As a public official, I believe it isn't my role, or the state's role, to impose its position or its judgment," McGreevey said. "Abortion is perhaps one of the most difficult moral and policy questions before American society. And as a Catholic, I reflect my values and traditions. Yet, in American society, we are a nation of laws, and ultimately the need for the next governor is to ensure adherence to the constitutional law, and that is abortion is a personal decision, a personal matter of conscience for every woman."
At the time of his 1989 Assembly campaign, McGreevey was endorsed by the New Jersey Pro-Life PAC, which lobbies to make abortion illegal. And NOW labeled him anti-abortion and refused to endorse him.
During the 1997 gubernatorial campaign, McGreevey said the Pro-Life PAC had confused his personal opinion with his political position. His campaign issued a statement saying he had supported legal abortion "during his entire career as a public official."
The abortion issue has taken on a particular significance in the current race for governor because the two major candidates have opposite views. McGreevey's opponent, Republican Bret Schundler, opposes abortion in all cases except when the mother's life is in danger.
For Schundler, too, it was a difficult journey to arrive at his position.
He supported abortion rights when he was first elected Jersey City mayor in 1992. But he changed his position in 1994 after what he said was a heart-felt conversation with one of his aides.
Schundler, who is a devout Christian, said he had always considered it a "question of faith" that a fetus was a human being, but believed it wasn't right to impose his belief on others. But he said an aide convinced him otherwise, arguing that the issue wasn't a matter of faith but biology: A fetus would become a human being, his aide said, if not aborted.
For Schundler, that was the bottom line. "The question becomes, if you really believe human life has value, you should stand up for it. And the reality is that an unborn child is a human being," he said.
Schundler has been open about this change in his position.
At news conferences held by abortion rights groups yesterday to endorse McGreevey, Schundler came in for heavy criticism. Both groups labeled Schundler an extremist who is out of touch with voters.
New Jersey NOW President Elizabeth Volz warned that Schundler "would move quickly to reduce women's reproductive choices, putting women's lives at risk" by sending them into "back alleys" for illegal abortions.
Bear Atwood, a member of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, said McGreevey's past views on abortion, whatever they were, are irrelevant.
"I don't know the truth of what Jim McGreevey thought in the past. I think what's important is where Jim McGreevey is today," she said.
Staff Writer Ron Marsico contributed to this report. Jeff Whelan covers politics. He can be reached at (973) 392-7860.