Press Release November 1, 2000 CONTACT: Jake Lewis or Stacy Malkan (202) 265-4000
GORE SUPPORTERS' ATTACK ON NADER ON ABORTION ISSUE: 'WORST SORT OF DIRTY-TRICK POLITICS'
WASHINGTON, D.C., November 1 – Nader campaign manager Theresa Amato today said that Gore supporters are misusing a recent response by Ralph Nader to a hypothetical question to scare pro-choice voters, and thereby intentionally distort Nader's history of opposing right-wing Supreme Court justices.
"Ralph Nader has said over and over again that for American women, the right to a safe, affordable and legal abortion is a legal right, and that the government has no business telling a woman to have or not to have a child," Amato said. "Al Gore recognized this when he changed his position from pro-life to pro-choice. George Bush recognized this when he told Tim Russert two weeks ago on Meet the Press that, '(Abortion) is not going to be outlawed until a lot of people change their mind. And there's going to be abortions one way or the other.'"
"The attempt by pro-choice advocates to take Ralph Nader's statement about a hypothetical overturning of Roe vs. Wade out of context and paint him as unconcerned about a woman's right to choose is both unfair and the worst sort of dirty-trick politics," Amato said.
"In a clear act of desperation, Democratic party partisans are trying to turn history on its head. Whereas Ralph Nader has opposed the nomination of Haynesworth, Carswell, Bork, Scalia and Thomas, the Democrats supported justices Scalia and Thomas and allowed them to be confirmed. The Democrats, including Al Gore, voted 98-0 to confirm Justice Scalia to the Supreme Court, and in a Democratic-controlled Senate, after the Anita Hill hearings, 11 Democrats voted to confirm Justice Thomas, thereby granting him a 52-48 confirmation victory," Amato said.
"The Democrats are responsible for putting what they term the two biggest anti-Roe vs. Wade justices on the Supreme Court."
-- Stacy Malkan Assistant Press Secretary Nader 2000 Campaign 202.265.4000 ext. 42 202.265.0183 (fax) www.votenader.org
Paid for by the Nader 2000 General Committee, Inc. P.O. Box 18002, Washington, D.C. 20036