R.I. anti-abortion group attacks Raimondo for stance on partial-birth abortion law

Oct. 04--PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- The executive director of the leading anti-abortion group in Rhode Island on Friday accused gubernatorial candidate Gina Raimondo of "shamelessly trying to misrepresent her calculated opposition to a 1997 R.I. state law banning partial-birth abortions."

Barth Bracy, the executive director of Rhode Island Right to Life, also took issue with the use of the word "goofy" in the middle of a heated back-and-forth a day earlier over Democrat Raimondo's position.

"Raimondo detailed her extreme position on abortion last week at a press conference with Planned Parenthood, the nation's largest abortion provider. The Raimondo campaign is now trying to characterize the matter as 'goofy,'" Bracy said.

The response from Raimondo campaign spokeswoman Nicole Kayner: "This anti-choice organization should stop lying about Gina's position. Her stance is clear. She supports a ban on late-term abortions that includes an exception for life and health of the woman."

Bracy was referring to a comment that Raimondo's campaign manager Eric Hyers made after the Rhode Island Catholic newspaper criticized Raimondo's "extreme position on abortion" in an editorial.

The editorial said Raimondo demonstrated her extreme position when she pledged, at a Planned Parenthood event last week, to seek repeal of a 1997 state law banning "partial-birth" abortion that federal courts have declared unconstitutional.

Hours after the editorial ran, Raimondo sought to publicly declare her general opposition to late-term abortions. In an interview, Raimondo said that, while she supports abortion rights, "I also support banning late-term abortions, so long as there is an exception in the law in regards to the life and health of the woman."

The issue of late-term abortions only came up then, Hyers said, because a reporter had asked Raimondo: "Are there any laws on the books dealing with women's reproductive health that you think shouldn't be on the books?"

"She was making a point that it is goofy to have an unconstitutional law on the books," Hyers added. "It had nothing whatsoever to do with the merits of late-term abortions."

But Bracy said: "Raimondo's calculated opposition to a statutory ban on the gruesome late-term abortion procedure has nothing to do with a 'goofy' matter of jurisprudence, as her campaign now suggests."

He said her backers at Planned Parenthood "are well aware that bills have been filed by Democrats in both chambers of the General Assembly during each of the past two legislative years that would replace the unenforceable 1997 language with language patterned on the 2003 federal ban, upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court."

"Planned Parenthood...knows that repealing the unenforceable 1997 ban will lessen the chance that we will succeed in replacing that language with constitutionally compliant language," he said.

(Planned Parenthood spokesman Jamie Rhodes responded: "The legality of late-term abortion has already been determined by the U.S. Supreme Court. Regardless of what may be on the books in Rhode Island, the question has been settled at the federal level.... These are intensely personal decisions that need to be made without meddling by either the church or the state.")

RIRL called on Raimondo "to stop trying to mislead the people of Rhode Island about her extreme position on abortion and the pledges she has made to her abortion industry supporters. At the very least, we hope that Treasurer Raimondo will be sensitive enough to not use words like 'goofy' in an obvious attempt to trivialize a matter that borders on infanticide," Bracy said.

Asked what is "extreme" about Raimondo's position, Bracy said:

"Her pledge to seek repeal of a 1997 R.I. law banning partial-birth abortions. Her pledge to appoint cabinet-level staff who will promote access to 'reproductive health services,' i.e., abortion.... Her pledge to veto legislation that would roll back, restrict or limit abortion access. Her pledge to continue Governor Chafee's exclusion from HealthSource RI of insurance plans that do not cover abortion-on-demand, thus subjecting all participants to a mandatory abortion fee even if in violation of their conscience and religious beliefs."

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