August 11, 2005

NARAL Withdraws Anti-Roberts Ad

Considering this ad was pretty much a full-fledged lie it only makes sense that the venomous NARAL is withdrawing it.

Abortion Rights Group Withdraws Roberts Ad (AP):

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.

Serious discussion? The ad said that Judge Roberts was pro-violence. NARAL was serious about that?

Specter, himself an abortion-rights supporter as well as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee that will question Roberts next month, earlier Thursday had called the ad "blatantly untrue and unfair."

[...]

The original ad has been airing on broadcast television in Maine and Rhode Island and on CNN.

[...]

Conservatives and Roberts supporters have been calling all week for NARAL to pull the ad.

NARAL had planned a $500,000 campaign to show the ad for two weeks.

"This ad grossly distorts the record of John Roberts from start to finish," said former Judiciary Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah. "It has only one goal: to associate John Roberts with violent extremists."

Senate Democrats have not taken a position on the ad.

When was the last time Democrats stood up for decency?

Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the Judiciary Committee's top Democrat, told The Associated Press that ads for and against Roberts won't sway senators weighing the confirmation.

[...]

Basically, NARAL was probably on the verge of a lawsuit and decided to pull it. Also, I'm sure a few liberals chimed in and told NARAL that the ad wasn't going to do any good.

Originally Posted at Conservative Thinking

By at 08:30 PM | |