NARAL’S BAD CHOICE
By Pat Racimora on May 24, 2008 at 12:54 PM in Abortion, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton
On May 14th, the national leadership of NARAL (National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws Pro-Choice America) made the stinging decision to endorse Senator Barack Obama for President. The state affiliates were not allowed to participate in this myopic decision, which tells us something about how NARAL does its business.
The thinking behind this endorsement is a miscarriage of reason on at least three counts:
1. Why would an organization dependent on public support, both financially and politically, purposely disenfranchise anyone? And why now, with so many millions of women passionately supporting Hillary Clinton? Endorsing any candidate at this point seems like a death wish.
2. For the first time we have a female candidate making a run for the presidency who has fought for most of her career for women and their rights, including the right to choose. Slapping such a candidate in the face is unconscionable, and Hillary supporters will not soon forget. As Emily’s List President Ellen R. Malcolm stated on NARAL’s endorsement in the Democratic presidential competition, “I think it is tremendously disrespectful to Sen. Clinton, who held up the nomination of a FDA commissioner in order to force approval of Plan B and who spoke so eloquently during the Supreme Court nomination about the importance of protecting Roe vs. Wade, to not give her the courtesy to finish the final three weeks of the primary process. It certainly must be disconcerting for elected leaders who stand up for reproductive rights and expect the choice community will stand with them.”
3. Finally, NARAL admits that a main criterion was the fact that Obama is a Black man and that such an endorsement will help ensure that the organization isn’t perceived as being just about White women. Aside from the obvious and blatant reverse racism, if NARAL has a perception problem, there are far better ways to approach messaging and outreach than putting the welfare of an entire organization in jeopardy.
Millions of women are as angry as bees whose hive has been ransacked, and rightly so. Many of these have written NARAL off as an organization they can no longer trust. It appears to me that the only way to reverse the damage is to apologize to Hillary supporters and for the NARAL President Nancy Keenan and the other national leadership make the choice to abort itself.
Thanks to my friend, Pat Bakalian, for the cartoon concept.


















