Jewish World Review July 16, 2004/ 27 Tamuz, 5764

Greg Crosby

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What is John Kerry Saying?

http://www.NewsAndOpinion.com | While on the campaign trail in Iowa a week or so ago, John Kerry told reporters for the Dubuque Telegraph Herald, "I oppose abortion personally. I don't like abortion. I believe life does begin at conception." How many of you reading this right now knows that Kerry said that? Let me state it again because it is important - John Kerry believes that life begins at conception.


If you haven't heard anything about this, it's not your fault - the media hasn't played it up. In fact, most of the national media hasn't reported on it at all. Now, if ANY presidential candidate had made such a statement it would be news - the fact that a liberal Democrat like Kerry made the statement should have made it HUGE news, but it wasn't! Why? Maybe it's because the liberal press doesn't want to show that Kerry is one of either two things - he's either a liar or a man who advocates murder.


Take a look at Kerry's voting record on abortion and you'll see what I'm getting at. It is public record that John Kerry has taken an extremely pro-abortion stand on every single abortion bill that has come up before Congress. He supports federal funding of abortions and partial-birth abortions. He's voted against the Partial-birth abortion ban at least six times between 1995 and 2003. Shortly after President Bush signed a law banning Partial-birth abortion at the end of last year, Kerry said, "There is no such thing as a partial-birth abortion. It is a late-term abortion. (The ban) is part of their (Bush and others who are against partial-birth abortion) assault on the rights of women in America."


Kerry has voted at least 25 times in favor of using taxpayer dollars to pay for abortions in the United States. He has said that he would vote against "any restrictions" on age or consent for abortion. He has voted time and again against requiring parental consent or notification for a minor's abortion. Clearly, the guy is FOR abortion, every kind of abortion, and having all American taxpayers pay for it.



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So, getting back to Kerry's statement - "I oppose abortion personally. I don't like abortion. I believe life does begin at conception." - what are we to make out of it? If the man truly believes that life begins at conception, then every time he votes in favor of abortion he is, in effect, advocating murder. It would be like a Nazi saying "I personally don't believe in gassing Jews," but then voting to keep the gas chambers open and running at full speed.


If Kerry honestly believes that human life starts at conception how in the world can he in good conscience support and pass laws that allow the aborting of those human lives?-Unless he simply has no regard for human life at all. Could it be in the year 2004 we actually have a man running for President of The United States on a major party ticket who honestly believes that the life of a human being begins at conception and yet is worth so little as to be disposable at ANY POINT during the pregnancy including the ninth month?


Earlier I wrote that Kerry's remark could only mean one of two things. He either believes that it's okay to murder babies, or he's a liar. I hope John Kerry is a liar - it would be easier to take. Because John Kerry has spent his adult life as a career politician who will say and do whatever needs to be said or done to advance his ambitions, I tend to think that he really doesn't believe that life begins at conception. I have a hunch he was only saying what he thought his Iowan audience wanted to hear. If indeed that is the case, then it is certainly better for Kerry to be shown as a liar than to be an advocate of murder.


Of course, there might be a third interpretation. Perhaps Kerry doesn't have any core beliefs at all. Maybe he's not even an intellectually honest liberal. Suppose he has no personal standards at all? He may not even have a real stand on abortion at all. He may very well be just another lawyer / politician without scruples, shifting his positions to adapting changes in the wind. Judging by his flip-flopping history, that could very well be the case.


There's only one problem with all of this - however you slice it, whichever way you want to take it, the Kerry comment is a big negative. At its best, it shows the man as a fraud, at worst a proponent of murder. There is no "good" way to spin this one.


And that is why, my friends, the media has chosen to ignore the whole thing.

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JWR contributor Greg Crosby, former creative head for Walt Disney publications, has written thousands of comics, hundreds of children's books, dozens of essays, and a letter to his congressman. A freelance writer in Southern California, you may contact him by clicking here.

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