Abortion: The Viability of Rudy Giuliani

There is so much that I like about Rudy Giuliani.

I think it's critical to our future as a nation that we have a president who really understands the global nature of the War on Terror and the consequences of following a path of retreat and surrender straight to failure. Victory is our only option. We need someone who has a spine. We can't have an appeaser in the Oval Office.

Giuliani fills the bill.

Then, there are the social issues.

In general, I'm not a single issue voter; but when it came to partial birth abortion, that was an automatic disqualifying factor. I refused to vote for any candidate that supported that gruesome procedure. I drew the line at casting a vote for infanticide.

Thankfully, when Rudy Giuliani got into the Election 2008 race, he did soften his position on abortion a bit by coming out against partial birth abortion. That was a step in the right direction.

I think abortion is murder.

It's the silencing of a beating human heart. That's not an opinion. That's a fact. There no debating that.

The BBC website has a page with a fascinating series of photos documenting fetal development. It's entitled, "In pictures: Watch me grow."

In the United States, 88% of abortions are performed in the first twelve weeks of pregnancy.
This fetus, at ten weeks gestation, "can move her arms and legs with a range of movements that are fluid and supple."

"Fetuses as young as eleven weeks have been seen with their thumbs in their mouths."

When I look at these photos, I wonder how the pro-abortion crowd manages to dismiss the facts about fetal development.

A fetus in the latter weeks of the first trimester is not a glob of formless cells nor is it a blob of tissue. It is a growing human being.

But I digress. This isn't about the development of an unborn child. It's about the viability of Rudy Giuliani as the Republican nominee for president.

It's important to me that a candidate have a pro-life ethic.

I've been trying to reconcile Giuliani's position on abortion with mine. I've convinced myself that as long as he promises to appoint constructionist judges to the courts, he would be protecting unborn human life.

Without question, Giuliani was awkward in his handling of the abortion issue during the first debate among the Republican candidates. Still, I'm comfortable with his pledge about the judges.

Just when I feel I can, in good conscience, support Giuliani wholeheartedly, something else comes out that makes me uneasy.

From The Politico:

Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani in his campaign appearances this year has stated that he personally abhors abortion, even though he supports keeping a legal right to choose. But records show that in the '90s he contributed money at least six times to Planned Parenthood, one of the country's leading abortion rights groups and its top provider of abortions.

Federal tax returns made public by the former New York mayor show that he and his then-wife, Donna Hanover, made personal donations to national, state and city chapters of Planned Parenthood totaling $900 in 1993, 1994, 1998 and 1999.

The returns have been on the public record for years, but the detail about Giuliani's support for Planned Parenthood -- along with e-mailed copies of the returns -- was provided to The Politico by aides to a rival campaign, who insisted on not being identified.

McCain's campaign?

Romney's campaign?

That doesn't matter. It's not like the rival campaign was saving this as material to use during a debate or as a primary eve surprise.

What matters is that Giuliani gave $900 to America's #1 abortion mill.

It's possible that Giuliani's ex-wife was behind the donations. If that's the case, Giuliani should say so. If he doesn't, one can assume that he wanted to donate to Planned Parenthood.

When he was mayor of New York, those contributions could have been cited as assurances to lib voters that he supported a woman's "right to choose," or what I like to call the "right to choose to kill."

But if this information is just being exposed now as part of some campaign's opposition research, Giuliani didn't use the contributions to cement himself as a pro-choice candidate. In other words, it wasn't a politically motivated move, or at least not one that he utilized.

On the campaign trail, Giuliani has a consistent mantra when the abortion issue comes up. "I'm against abortion. I hate it. I wish there never was an abortion, and I would counsel a woman to have an adoption instead of an abortion," Giuliani said last month in Columbia, S.C., in a typical comment.

He also frequently notes that, during his tenure as mayor, the number of abortions went down in New York City and that, as president, he would appoint "strict constructionist judges," a description meant to reassure social conservatives.

Asked how Giuliani could reconcile personal opposition to abortion with a contribution to Planned Parenthood, a Giuliani spokeswoman reiterated the former mayor's stump message and took what could be construed as a shot against former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who has recently become an opponent of abortion rights.

"Mayor Giuliani has been consistent in his position -- he is personally opposed to abortion, but at the same time he understands it is a personal and emotional decision that should ultimately be left up to the woman," said Maria Comella.

Comella added that, "from the start, Mayor Giuliani has been straight with the American people about where he stands on the issues and saying exactly what he thinks.

"Ultimately, this election is about leadership, and it's a sign of leadership to stand by your position in the face of political expediency."

Giuliani's bid will test how far an abortion-rights politician can advance within the GOP. Every Republican nominee since 1980 has opposed abortion.

Opposition researchers for other candidates hope to make Giuliani's life more difficult at regular intervals -- and to help them out, they have a trove of video clips and quotes from Giuliani's time in City Hall showing him to be a vocal advocate of abortion rights.

The abortion issue is definitely something that Giuliani has to manage more effectively if he hopes to win the nomination. It's going to be a sticking point for a lot of conservatives and it's not something he can ignore.

It appears that Giuliani's opponents intend to employ a "death by a thousand cuts" strategy when it comes to attacking his pro-life credentials.

I admit that this Planned Parenthood thing bothers me.

I need Giuliani to explain it.

If Giuliani hates abortion as much as he claims, I don't get why he would donate to America's leading abortion provider.

It's one thing for a Republican candidate to say he or she respects established law. It's another to give money to fund the activities of abortionists.