Abortion letter still an issue

By Kevin Woster, Journal Staff Writer

Two years after Sen. Tom Daschle sent out a fund- raising letter for the National Abortion Rights Action League saying he had "stood up for a woman's right to choose," Daschle refuses to say whether he is pro-choice on abortion.

The South Dakota Democrat avoided making a direct response to the question several times Monday during a telephone interview from Washington, D.C. Rather than address the pro-choice question directly, Daschle stated his long-standing personal view that each abortion is a tragedy but that the solution lies in finding better options rather than criminalizing the act itself.

Many people would consider that a pro-choice position, if pro-choice means leaving the decision of whether to have an abortion, in most instances, up to the pregnant woman and her doctor. But Daschle firmly avoided saying those words.

"I am opposed to abortion. And I'm very strongly in favor of finding alternatives to abortion," Daschle said. "I believe that sending a young woman and her doctor to jail is the wrong remedy."

When reminded that he had said in the Oct. 29, 2002 letter, that the "Senate's pro-choice leadership" was being threatened by "anti-choice force," he still refused to say whether he considered himself pro-choice.

Daschle also questioned the appropriateness of the question.

The abortion issue arose during the past two weeks, as abortion foes used the NARAL letter in advertisements

supporting John Thune, the Republican challenging Daschle for his Senate seat. Thune, who would support laws to ban abortion except in cases of rape and incest or to save the life of the mother, intensified the attack in recent days by charging that the NARAL letter is the truth test about Daschle's position on abortion.

Thune maintains that Daschle has increasingly slid away from his stated opposition to abortion in earlier campaigns, in large part because his job as Senate leader has made him beholden to liberal Democrats there.

"The NARAL letter, I think, removes all doubt about where his position is," Thune said. "I'm just shocked that he doesn't own up to his position. How can a guy call himself a leader when he can't decide his position on an issue like this that is so clear cut.

"He wants to be pro-choice for the people who are pro-choice, then he describes himself to the voters as anti-abortion. That's the disturbing pattern with Daschle."

Even some staunch Daschle supporters wondered whether the NARAL letter would become a troublesome issue in this year's campaign. Democrats were in the majority in the Senate under Daschle's leadership two years ago when he signed off on the controversial letter, which was sent to NARAL supporters seeking donations to the organization's Save the Senate campaign.

At the time it was sent out, the NARAL letter prompted a sharp response against Daschle, who is Catholic, from some leaders in the Catholic Church, including Bishop Blase Cupich of the Catholic Diocese of Rapid City. Daschle had previously sparred publicly over his position on abortion with Bishop Robert Carlson of the Catholic Diocese of Sioux Falls.

Carlson has taken an active role in many political issues and in past speeches to Catholic groups has suggested that abortion was the most important of many key moral and social issues Catholics should consider when supporting a candidate.

Cupich has been less vocal politically but was motivated to respond to Daschle's NARAL letter in 2002 with a statement of his own, which was read at Masses at West River parishes that November.

In it, Cupich said that Daschle "has not only aligned himself with the strident position of NARAL, but he has also made abortion the issue of this year's campaign. Those who have known the senator for years consider this very public action a major shift in his moral position on this important issue."

Cupich later discussed the issue with Daschle personally. Cupich said recently that he saw no need to make any public statement about the letter during Daschle's re-election campaign this year but still sees the letter as uncharacteristic bold support of abortion rights.

"In that particular moment when he, in fact, issued the NARAL letter was a case where he had crossed the line," Cupich said.

It is unclear how the letter will affect registered voters among the 29,440 Catholics west of the Missouri River or the 125,332 in East River parishes. But the issue itself is one that Daschle must handle delicately at this stage of the campaign, according to John Glover, an associate professor of history, political science and Indian studies at Black Hills State University in Spearfish.

Glover said that in an era of advertising blitzes, it would be easy for members of the Thune staff to take "pro-choice" and turn it into being "pro-abortion," even though the two aren't exactly the same.

"The term ‘pro-choice' is a buzzword that might be too closely associated with ‘pro-abortion,' and that's not exactly his position," Glover said. "He's looking at South Dakota, in a close race, and he doesn't want to be put in a camp he's not in.

"Unfortunately, you have to be gun-shy considering the climate of negative advertising," Glover said. "If you can't explain it in 15 seconds, you better not get into it. You can cut somebody to the core pretty quickly."

Daschle said that is exactly what Thune and some anti-abortion opponents are trying to do in manipulating the meaning of the NARAL letter and distorting his overall position. Daschle maintains that he has always believed abortion was wrong, a deep human tragedy. But he doesn't believe in trying to impose criminal penalties, a move almost certain to be declared unconstitutional anyway.

Daschle made similar statements during his first House campaign in 1978 and his first Senate race in 1986.

As for the content of the NARAL letter, he argues that he wrote it as the Senate Democratic leader to support members of his caucus who were running for re-election. In particular, Daschle mentioned then Sen. Jean Carnahan of Missouri, who in 2002 lost to a Republican challenger in one of the races that returned control of the Senate to the Republicans.

"That letter was not intended to be a fund-raiser for NARAL whatsoever," Daschle said. "It was intended to help a colleague who had lost her husband in a plane crash and was running for the Senate."

The letter was written under a headline that read: "Last chance to keep pro-choice leadership in the Senate." Those words were near a picture of Daschle where he was identified as the majority leader in the Senate.

In the letter, Daschle called Carnahan one of the "champions of reproductive rights." He also said, "As the majority leader in the U.S. Senate, I've stood up for a woman's right to choose, and the pro-choice leadership of the Senate has made a difference by safeguarding women's rights from the anti-choice agenda of the Bush administration."

Despite the controversy, Daschle said he doesn't regret writing the letter.

"I regret the interpretation of the letter," he said. "I certainly don't regret helping Jean Carnahan."

Whatever the intent of the letter, some of the words are far removed from the content of campaign letters Daschle had sent in previous campaigns. During his first campaign for the U.S. House in 1978, Daschle labeled abortion as an "abhorrent practice" and went on to say this:

"As a citizen and a lifelong member of the Catholic faith, I will do everything in my power to persuade others that abortion is wrong because I am firmly convinced that persuasion, not legal action, is the only proper and the only truly effective way to limit abortion."

In a 1986 campaign letter, Daschle said he was "unalterably opposed to abortion on demand" and went on to say this:

"This is a battle over human life. It must be won the only way it can ever be won, by persuading the young woman on whose decision the life or death of an infant depends that the taking of that life is terribly wrong."

Daschle also enclosed in that same mailing a letter of support on the abortion issue from his friend, the Rev. Terry Miller, an evangelical Christian minister. In that letter, Miller said Daschle was as opposed to abortion as he was and had even referred to the procedure as "a form of murder."

Miller, who is closely associated with Hutterite and Mennonite churches, now works in a mission ministry in Canada. Contacted by telephone Sunday night, he said he already had voted absentee for Daschle and sent letters to Hutterite and Mennonite religious leaders in South Dakota asking them to support Daschle.

Miller said he remembers Daschle using the term "a form of murder" to describe abortions. Daschle said he doesn't remember clearly whether he used that term or not.

"I don't know if I would have used that term, but it's a tragedy," he said.

Asked if he believes abortion is a form of murder, Thune said probably not.

"I guess I choose not to use that word. To me, that ascribes a malice aforethought," Thune said. "But I do believe it is taking a life."

Miller said Daschle has been consistent in voting against abortion in some instances, such as a recent ban on partial-birth abortions that he had earlier opposed, while rejecting the idea that abortion can successfully be outlawed entirely.

Miller called Daschle "a man of faith" who personally abhors abortion but believes it must be made rare by persuasion rather than trying to impose criminal penalties that currently would be outside the laws of the land.

"Tom's political enemies are determined to demonize him as a pro-abortion candidate. This is totally unfair and misrepresents who he is and what he believes," Miller said. "This is a good and decent man who remains personally opposed to abortion, which he abhors. And in this, you are hearing his heart."

Contact Kevin Woster at 394-8413 or kevin.woster@rapidcityjournal.com