It is disheartening that Robert Casey, who defeated Rick Santorum in the Pennsylvania senate race last year, and who has always said he is pro-life, has cast a major pro-abortion vote.
Pro-Life Democrat Bob Casey Casts Strange Votes for Abortion Funding
He said that, on the pro-life Brownback amendment, “it was my intention to vote ‘nay.’ Therefore, I ask unanimous consent that I be permitted to change my vote since it will not affect the outcome of that vote.”
LifeNews.com asked Casey staff members for comment for this story but have not yet received a response.
However, Casey spokesman Larry Smar talked with NR's Freddoso and claimed the senator has not changed his position on abortion or funding it.
“He does not support public funding of abortion,” Smar said. “The amendment he voted for would not allow public funding of abortion, which is illegal” under another provision.
Freddoso calls this answer "disingenuous."
"The Boxer amendment does not put money directly into grants for providing abortions, but it funds groups that perform and refer them. Since money is fungible — that is, it can be used for anything — there is really no difference," he writes.
"That is why this amendment was so controversial, and why other pro-life senators — including Sen. Ben Nelson (a Nebraska Democrat) — voted against it, and have voted against it in all of its many incarnations over the years," he added.
Douglas Johnson, the legislative director for National Right to Life, told LifeNews.com he agreed.
"Before the adoption of the Mexico City Policy, the U.S. government was the major funder of organizations that campaigned to legalize abortion in Latin America, Africa, and elsewhere," he said.
"If the Boxer Amendment, which Sen. Casey regrettably supported, was enacted, it would force the removal of family planning funds from private organizations that stick to non-abortive methods, in order to give those funds to organizations that are committed to the promotion of abortion," Johnson explained.Freddoso says that pro-life advocates must ask whether they can consider Casey one of their own after he voted to send taxpayer funds to groups that do abortions in other nations and lobby to topple their pro-life laws.
Here is a recent posting relevant to this vote:
LifeNet: Recent Senate votes remind us of the stakes in the 2008 Presidential election
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