Nope. I don't like Specter but it's deceitful to imply he is worse than he is. That goes for stating he has accepting money from Planned Parenthood if he actually didn't, and it goes for insisting he has a "consistent pro-abortion voting record". He voted to pass the Partial Birth Abortion Ban and he voted to pass Laci and Conner's Law.
He's not conservative or pro-life, no, but you guys attempting to paint him as extreme as Kerry, Kennedy, etc, is a distortion. I don't like it when either side engages in that garbage.
Partial Birth Abortion is considered Infanticide, not abortion. The reason is that a healthy baby is delivered, with the exception the head is left in the Birth Contol. At this point in the process, the baby with beating heart and brain activity, has the brain crushed.
Then the baby is allowed to be delivered.
The Planned Parenthood help that Specter received was not directly rebuked by Specter -- Planned Parenthood saw a potential ally going down to defeat, and Specter did not warn Republicans that Planned Parenthood was not speaking for his campaign.
He did not directly rebuke the help, but he did not directly accept the help.
As for Conner's law, the woman was in the 8 month of a pregnancy. Many people consider this a general protection for pregnant women and their unborn.
I imagine that people in Pennsylvania who have contributed heavily to Planned Parenthood have also contributed to Arlen Specter.
Rick Santorium would not get such money because of his Pro-Life stance.
From:
http://www.vote-smart.org/npat.php?can_id=S0761103
Arlen Specter states:
Abortions should always be legal.
He does say:
PBA should be Illegal.
But my response is that this is Infanticide not abortion, because this is the position of the majority of MD's [doctors] in the country.
For this discussion, the web page:
http://www.vote-smart.org/issue_rating_category.php?can_id=S0761103
is of interest.
According to this web page:
In 2001, Arlen Specter voted in the preferred position of Planned Parenthood 75% of the time.
In 1999, Arlen Specter voted in the preferred position of Planned Parenthood 71% of the time.
In 1996-2003, Arlen Specter voted in the preferred position of Planned Parenthood 67% of the time.
However, there are gray areas:
In 2001, NARAL rated his votes that were most important to NARAL to be 0% in their preferred positions.
But in 2000, NARAL rated his votes to be 90% of their preferred position.
Also, in 2001-2002, NARAL rated his position as being 0% supportive of NARAL important votes.
National Right to Life shows that his votes goes almost one side to the other.
In 1999-2000, Arlen Specter had a 22% rating on the preferred position of NRLC (National Right to Life Comittee).
This was even worse in 2001-2002, where Arlen Specter's rating with NRLC votes was 0%.
But the contradiction comes in 2003-2004, where Arlen Specter's votes were 64% in the preferred position of NRLC.
The point here is not so much Arlen Specter waffling on positions, it is the votes that he supported were not that controversal.
A man killing a pregnant woman is different from a woman having an abortion.
Arlen voted for the former, but still supports the right of a woman to have an abortion.
It is true that Arlen Specter has received support that amounts to support that has a financial value -- the support of the chapter of Planned Parenthood in Pennsylvania trying to get votes for Specter.
My question is reversal of yours -- where has Arlen Specter ever come out and condemned Planned Parenthood.
And where has Arlen Specter come out and condemned Planned Parenthood on this particular issue.
The Life Dynamics information is from 2002.
This has given Arlen Specter plenty of time to condemn Planned Parenthood.
No. There is a smoking gun. Arlen Specter has received critical support from Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood even boasts about this support.
That was in the primary against Toomey. Planned Parenthood claims their efforts gave Specter enough votes to beat the conservative Toomey.
Overall in the in the Senate, Specter has a 67% favorable rating with Planned Parenthood.
I will consider PBA not abortion but infanticide, so that means that Arlen Specter is still an abortion supporter, even though he has recently supported the PBA Ban (I ever voted to support Clinton's veto or not).