Giuliani; Abortion

UPDATED

Over at TAPPED, Ann Friedman notes with some distress that Planned Parenthood is praising Rudy! for his now-unabashed primary season commitment to reproductive rights.

A disappointing email from Planned Parenthood hit my inbox this morning, lauding Rudy's position on abortion:

WASHINGTON, DC - In response to comments by Republican primary candidates during tonight's debate, Planned Parenthood Action Fund President Cecile Richards issued the following statement:
"Giuliani's pro-choice position proves that you don't have to check your convictions at the presidential primary door. It's increasingly clear that the days of the anti-choice stranglehold on the Republican Party are numbered.

"While other Republican candidates pander to and fight over the extreme right wing within their party, Rudy Giuliani is leading the pack and he recognizes that standing up for women's health is a winning position. Freedom of choice and personal responsibility are bedrock values of the Republican Party. Now is the time for mainstream Republicans to raise their voices in support of this important issue.

Right. Clearly Giuliani is staking his campaign on his deep, unwavering commitment to women's health... He repeats that he's personally opposed to abortion, that he would support further restrictions, that he would appoint an anti-choice Supreme Court justice, and that overturning Roe would "be OK."

The thing to keep in mind is that Giuliani won't actually do any of those things if he becomes president. Those primary-season platitudes were just the answers he gave when he thought he still had a chance to sway anti-choice fundamentalists to his side. As soon as he looked at the primary calendar and realized he could attract more delegates in the early states with pro-choice conviction rather than with anti-choice platitudes, he dropped the platitudes. No abortion opponents believed him, anyway.

Giuliani is not an anti-choicer. He only played one on TV. He's a political opportunist who happens to actually support abortion rights. The man is on tape championing taxpayer funding for abortions, for goodness' sake, and I am not aware of him ever having backed away from those remarks.

Planned Parenthood can't lose by hitching its wagon to an alternate star. Heads, they win. Tails, they win.

The risk is not that Giuliani might betray Planned Parenthood by suddenly opposing reproductive rights if he becomes president. The risk is that his genuinely liberal stances on social issues might cause some constituencies to underestimate the danger posed by his authoritarian inclinations when it comes to criminal justice and national security. The Rudy! who champions gay rights and reproductive rights is the same one who states boldly that if he becomes president, he is willing to detain American citizens indefinitely without due process as part of a "war on terror." His candidacy is a real and present threat to whatever American liberties manage to survive the presidency of George W. Bush.

Planned Parenthood and any other interest groups should remember that before they let themselves get seduced by Rudy Giuliani.

UPDATE

The following response to Ann Friedman was posted at TAPPED:

Giuliani does not have a lifetime endorsement from Planned Parenthood, and he does not have an endorsement from Planned Parenthood Action Fund today. But he has chosen to run for the Republican nomination as a pro-choice candidate and that shows a commitment to mainstream values that a majority of voters can get behind. The more politicians we have who support women's health, the better. It will be a great day when choice isn't even a political issue. But if we ever want to break the right-wing, anti-choice grasp on the Republican Party, we have to start somewhere. We have to show all candidates that standing up for women's health is not a Republican, Democrat or Independent value -- it's a value that all Americans can and should support.

Posted by: Planned Parenthood | May 16, 2007 03:12 PM