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Sen. Biden favored ’03 abortion ban |
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By Sam Youngman
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Posted: 04/18/07 07:18 PM [ET] |
Presidential candidate Sen. Joseph Biden (D-Del.) stood out yesterday as the only Democratic candidate to remain quiet on the Supreme Court’s ruling that the 2003 congressional ban on some late-term abortions is constitutional.
While candidates on both sides of the aisle, led by former Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.), rushed out statements throughout the day, the Biden campaign stiff-armed repeated requests for comment. By press time, the campaign still had no comment.
That may be for good reason.
Biden is the only Democratic presidential candidate who was in the Senate in 2003 to vote in favor of the bill banning so-called partial-birth abortions, legislation that has been vilified by groups that support abortion rights as an assault on the case of Roe v. Wade.
Biden did not vote on the initial bill when it passed in March 2003, but he voted in favor of the conference report when it landed on the Senate floor in October of the same year.
Most candidates on both sides of the aisle rushed out statements after the court’s ruling yesterday morning, with Edwards leading the charge.
“I could not disagree more strongly with today’s Supreme Court decision,” Edwards said in a release. “This hard right turn is a stark reminder of why Democrats cannot afford to lose the 2008 election. Too much is at stake — starting with, as the Court made all too clear today, a woman’s right to choose.”
Throughout the day, Edwards’s statement was echoed by most Democratic hopefuls, including Sens. Barack Obama (Ill.), Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) and Chris Dodd (Conn.), who said they were “disappointed” or “troubled” by the court’s decision.
Clinton and Dodd voted against both measures in 2003.
Edwards, who again Wednesday tried to stake his claim to the left in the early campaign jockeying, did not vote on either piece of legislation.
By press time, Edwards’s campaign was unable to explain why the senator did not vote on either piece of legislation. The campaign also failed to answer whether Kate Michelman, an Edwards adviser and longtime president of the pro-abortion rights group NARAL Pro-Choice America, had advised the former senator on his policy or his statement.
Obama was in the Illinois state Senate in 2003, where at times he came under fire from groups that oppose abortion for a series of “present” and “no” votes he cast on a set of legislation collectively known as the Illinois Born Alive Infants Protection Act.
The director of government relations for NARAL Pro-Choice America, Donna Crane, said that because Edwards had voted against such a ban in the past, he was still considered by the group to have a solid record in favor of abortion rights.
Crane said the pro-abortion rights group, which has yet to endorse a presidential candidate, took note of Biden’s 2003 vote.
“Sen. Biden did not vote pro-choice on that bill, to our regret,” Crane said.
The ruling also touched off a bit of a storm on the Republican side of the contest when former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani (N.Y.) issued a brief statement saying the court had made the right decision.
“The Supreme Court reached the correct conclusion in upholding the congressional ban on partial-birth abortion,” Giuliani said in a statement on the 5-4 decision. “I agree with it.”
Giuliani has said in the past that he would not support restrictions on a woman’s right to an abortion, and many conservatives are questioning the mayor’s conservative credentials as he vies for the GOP nomination.
NARAL President Nancy Keenan told The Hill that while she was satisfied with the reactions and statements from most of the Democratic camps, she was “quite disappointed” in what she said was Giuliani’s conversion “in order to win a primary.” |
