Rest of article:
Reid's reputation as an opponent of abortion rests partly on votes in 1999 and 2003 against the Harkin amendment, which endorsed Roe v. Wade. Today, Reid is the only remaining Democratic senator who voted no both times. He also voted for a ban on partial-birth abortion and for a bill making the killer of a pregnant woman guilty of two murders--one for the woman's life and one for the unborn child's. Those votes bolster Reid's pro-life credentials.
But there's more to the story. The Harkin resolution was merely an expression of Senate sentiment. It wasn't binding. On partial-birth abortion, Reid voted initially for a substitute bill that would have gutted the ban. And on the two-victims legislation, he demonstrably backed a measure proposed by Senator Dianne Feinstein of California that would have done just the opposite, codified that only one victim was involved. Reid and then-Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle ostentatiously cast the first two votes for the Feinstein bill. It lost by one vote.
After President Bush reinstated the so-called Mexico City policy which bars funds from overseas organizations that perform or promote abortions, Reid moved to block the president's action. His amendment was never enacted. Reid also supported attempts to revive American funds for the United Nations Population Fund, some of whose money aids coercive abortions in China. These attempts to stymie the pro-life efforts failed. So what's the bottom line on Reid as a reliable legislative battler on behalf of the unborn? He's not one.
Finally, there's the matter of Reid's allies
and opponents on abortion. Klein quotes Kate Michelman, the former head of NARAL Pro-Choice America, as saying of Reid, "I'm honored to be his friend." When Reid ran for Democratic leader, neither NARAL nor Planned Parenthood voiced a peep of opposition. And WeNews, an online publication for women, concluded Reid's ascension wouldn't affect the strong pro-abortion position of Senate Democrats. Meanwhile, Douglas Johnson, the chief lobbyist for National Right to Life, said Reid "is certainly no ally of the pro-life movement. He usually votes against pro-life interests when it matters most." Thus, Reid turns out to be, again, closer to the pro-abortion side than the pro-life.
In 1985, when Reid was a House member, he published a newspaper ad citing ten antiabortion votes he'd made. Better yet, the ad included an endorsement by Republican Rep. Henry Hyde of Illinois, the leading pro-life spokesman on Capitol Hill. Reid, Hyde said, "has never failed to support . . . the issues that concern the family and the pre-born." A decade later, Reid had found wiggle room on abortion. He'd come up with a different take.
Voters in Reid's home state approved a referendum in 1990 making Roe v. Wade the law in Nevada. "I respect that decision and believe it should only be changed by another vote of the people of Nevada," Reid wrote constituents a few years later. "I will review all proposed abortion legislation with this perspective." And so he has. A real pro-lifer wouldn't have.
Sophists all.
They will never advocate for an unborn human.
I'm very disappointed in Reid. As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints he should be pro-life. Instead, he's just not pro-abortion like the rest of the Democrats. I guess, relative to the rest of the Democrats, Sen. Reid looks pretty good. But pro-life he is not. Sad...