Colorado Gov. Ritter Is Not 'Principled Pro-Life Democrat,' Opinion Piece Says

Main Category: Abortion
Article Date: 12 Aug 2008 - 11:00 PDT

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"It's hard to imagine anyone in Colorado touting rookie Gov. Bill Ritter (D) as vice presidential timber," but "2,000 miles away, locked in the surrealism of the Beltway," Washington Post columnist Michael Gerson "has done just that," Denver Post columnist Mark Hillman writes in an opinion piece (Hillman, Denver Post, 8/7). Gerson in the piece wrote that Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) should consider making Ritter his vice presidential running mate, in part because "picking a genuinely pro-life running mate would be a revolutionary decision" (Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 8/1).

Gerson "missed the target" in his "search for a principled, pro-life Democrat," Hillman writes, adding that Gerson is "[o]blivious to Ritter's indecisiveness on fulfilling major campaign promises." According to Hillman, "It is logically indefensible to simultaneously acknowledge ... the sanctity of unborn life but refuse to expend political capital in its defense," but "that is precisely what Ritter has done." Hillman writes that Ritter's "pro-life authenticity is a self-made myth."

Hillman notes that Ritter restored state funding for Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains; signed legislation that requires all Roman Catholic hospitals to distribute emergency contraception to rape survivors; said he will not seek to appoint judges who oppose abortion rights; and has "no antiabortion legislation on his agenda." In addition, Hillman writes, Ritter has "made it clear" that if Roe v. Wade were overturned, he would veto legislation that is "too restrictive." Such "abject servitude to political expediency would hardly be lauded as courageous or authentic if it guided policy on civil rights or the environment," Hillman writes, adding, "Once a politician trades for political gain what he knows to be right on an issue as fundamental as human life, it's hard to imagine anything he won't compromise" (Denver Post, 8/7).

Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.nationalpartnership.org. You can view the entire Daily Women's Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery here. The Daily Women's Health Policy Report is a free service of the National Partnership for Women & Families, published by The Advisory Board Company.

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