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CWA rips Sen. Reid over abortion double-standard

A conservative women's group is accusing Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) of hypocrisy for voting for a federal ban on partial-birth abortion, yet criticizing Supreme Court Justice Sam Alito for upholding it.



Following the high court's 5-4 decision last week to uphold the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, Senator Reid told reporters "A lot of us wish that Alito weren't there and O'Connor were there." Justice Alito replaced liberal Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who wrote the majority opinion in 2000 overturning Nebraska's ban on partial-birth abortion.

Wendy Wright, president of Concerned Women for America (CWA), says Reid has a history of portraying himself as "pro-life" to people in his home state, and the media often erroneously labels him as such.

"You have to look closer at his record and the things that he says when he's here in Washington, DC, [to see] that he's trying to have it both ways," Wright remarks. "For example, he voted for the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban, but he also voted for amendments that would have gutted it. He's voted to nullify the Mexico City policy; that's a policy that says our tax dollars should not go to international organizations that commit or promote abortion."

According to Wright, taking a duplicitous stance on issues such as abortion is a "sly ploy" employed by some politicians. She notes that despite Reid's claim of being pro-life, he clearly wants activist judges like Sandra Day O'Connor on the Supreme Court to uphold abortion on demand with no restrictions. And when he is in Washington, says Wright, he panders to pro-abortion groups like Planned Parenthood and NARAL.

"What he stated makes his intentions and his beliefs quite clear: that he wants abortion on demand, and he recognizes it's not what the folks back home want," the CWA president observes. "The voters don't want their representatives allowing abortion, especially as gruesome as partial-birth abortion -- but he wants judges who will not allow any regulations or restrictions on abortion."

As Wright puts it in a press release, Reid's statement reveals the senator's modus operandi: "Act one way in actions that voters will see, yet vigorously work to ensure the opposite is the final result."