POLITICS: NARAL Pulls Anti-Roberts Confirmation Ad, page 1

posted on Aug, 11 2005 @ 08:38 PM

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NARAL, a U.S. abortion rights advocacy group, has just announced that they will be pulling television advertisements that suggested that U.S. Supreme Court nominee John Roberts had supported violence by anti-abortion activists. The advertisement had been roundly criticized by conservatives and moderates as a distortion Roberts' record. NARAL said it pulled the ad because it had become a distraction to the serious discussion of Roberts.

msnbc.msn.com
WASHINGTON - After a week of protests by conservatives, an abortion rights group said Thursday night it is withdrawing a television advertisement linking Supreme Court nominee John Roberts to violent anti-abortion activists.

“We regret that many people have misconstrued our recent advertisement about Mr. Roberts’ record,” said Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America.

“Unfortunately, the debate over that advertisement has become a distraction from the serious discussion we hoped to have with the American public,” she said in a letter Thursday to Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., who had urged the group to withdraw the ad.

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Hopefully this will signal change to the harsh political rhetoric in Washington. It's clear that the NARAL ad did indeed grossly distort the facts to push their own agenda, and hopefully, that will not be tolerated in the future.

[edit on 8/11/2005 by djohnsto77]

[edit on 8/11/2005 by djohnsto77]

jsobecky

posted on Aug, 12 2005 @ 05:42 PM

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It's just been announced that David E. Seldin, NARAL's Communications Director, has resigned.

Good.

djohnsto77

posted on Aug, 13 2005 @ 04:18 PM

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Wow, just wow.

Now The New York Times editorial page is attacking NARAL for its misleading ad against Roberts...you know it's bad when the NYT is against such a liberal group:

My position on abortion has been, as politicians put it, evolving. I was once pro-choice and a contributor to Naral. Now I'm pro-choice but anti-Naral.

The group has a genius for alienating potential allies, as demonstrated by the television commercial it introduced this week and then hastily withdrew after a barrage of criticism. The ad, which featured footage of a bombed abortion clinic and a victim in a wheelchair, accused Judge John Roberts Jr. of siding with clinic bombers and having an ideology that would "excuse" their attacks.

What Mr. Roberts actually did, on behalf of the administration of the first President George Bush, was to write a brief supporting the right of people to protest at abortion clinics, not bomb them. His argument was not only reasonable, but also exposed a fundamental problem in the way Naral Pro-Choice America has framed the abortion issue.

The New York Times