NARAL Pro-Choice New York Unimpressed With Senate Contender Ford After Meeting, Plans To Endorse Gillibrand

Main Category: Abortion
Also Included In: Pediatrics / Children's Health;  Women's Health / Gynecology
Article Date: 04 Feb 2010 - 5:00 PDT

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A meeting Monday between former Rep. Harold Ford (D-Tenn.) -- who is considering a primary challenge against Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) -- and NARAL Pro-Choice New York officials solidified the group's decision to endorse Gillibrand in a potential fall primary, the AP/WKRG reports. While Ford emerged from the meeting calling the session "positive," NARAL Pro-Choice New York President Kelli Conlin said, "I really believed that if he wanted to meet with us that it would be to say to me, 'I want to be your partner,' and that's not what came out of the meeting."

During his time in Congress, Ford voted in favor of parental consent for minors seeking abortion procedures and for the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003. He has also repeatedly referred to his views as "pro-life" in the past and has said that he was "not pro-choice." Ford -- who unsuccessfully ran for the U.S. Senate in Tennessee in 2006 and later moved to New York City -- has attempted to explain those positions by stating that he had been trying to expand the meaning of "pro-life" to include stances in support of "health care and veterans' benefits." Ford now insists that he is "staunchly pro-choice" and has always held that position.

Conlin said that "pro-life" and "pro-choice" are meaningful terms to many and that "it's a dangerous game to start playing with those terms." Last month, NARAL Pro-Choice New York released a statement "to make it clear to all New Yorkers" that Ford is "anti-choice." During the meeting, Ford defended his earlier abortion-related votes and told NARAL officials that they would have to agree to disagree about parental consent and "partial-birth" abortion, according to Conlin. She said her group would never endorse a candidate with those views, adding, "The concept of this being sort of a political convenience mart is not something that we accept in New York" (Kugler, AP/WKRG, 2/2).

Colbert Questions Ford's Abortion-Rights Positions

Ford appeared on Comedy Central's "Colbert Report" on Monday, where host Stephen Colbert asked him about his shifting stance on abortion rights and same-sex marriage. Colbert said, "Did you change from not pro-choice to pro-choice? Was that your choice?" Ford replied that he was trying to use the term "pro-choice" differently in Tennessee by expanding the definition to include issues beyond abortion. The fake news anchor also prodded Ford about moving from Tennessee to New York, saying, "Evidently, six minutes at my interview table counts as New York state residency" (Kugler, AP/Yahoo! News, 2/3).

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