Abortion Betrayals

Date	Name(s)	Party	Office	Stated Position	Betrayal	Comments
March 21, 2010	Bart Stupak	Democrat	Congressman (MI)	Rated 0% by NARAL, indicating a pro-life voting record. Rated 100% by the NRLC, indicating a pro-life stance.	Stupak abandoned his position and betrayed the trust of the American people by allowing the passage of Obamacare, which pays for at-will abortions with Federal funds.	Voted against the Pence Amendment to ban funding to Planned Parenthood in 2009.
May 21, 2003	Dennis Kucinich	Democrat	Congressman (OH)	Rated 95% Pro-life in his 1st three-terms as Congressman by the National Right to Life Committee in 2000.	Kucinich abandoned his position when he decided to run for President. He would give a campaign speech, "as president, I would protect that right [to abortion], and I would also make sure that appointees to the Supreme Court protected that right."	He never received more than 3% of the vote, ranked last.
1996	Richard Durbin	Democrat	Senator (IL)	As a Congressman he was the speaker at the annual right-to-life rally, "I believe we should end abortion on demand, and at every opportunity, I have translated this belief into votes in the House of Representatives," "I continue to believe the Supreme Court's decision in Roe v. Wade should be reversed."	When running as a Senator he changed his position to pro-abortion saying, "And I finally came to the conclusion that we really have to try to honor the Roe vs. Wade thinking, that there are certain times in the life of a woman that she needs to make that decision with her doctor, with her family and with her conscience and that the government shouldn't be intruding."	Votes for Obamacare whereby the government intrudes in everyones health issues. Rated 100% by NARAL in 2003
1992	Richard S. Williamson	Republican	nominee for U.S. Senate for Illinois	signed a pro-life pledge during the campaign	disavowed his pledge once Carol Moseley Braun became his opponent, whom he hoped to defeat by becoming pro-choice	lost in a landslide after his duplicity was exposed; Pro-life Peter Fitzgerald then defeated Moseley Braun the next time
July 6, 1990	Buddy Roemer	Democrat	Louisiana Governor	"we've had a betrayal by a governor who has been on the record as pro-life"	vetoed a pro-life bill passed by overwhelming majorities in the legislature	the legislature overrode his veto; Roemer was defeated for reelection and could never win an election again
1986	Richard Gephardt	Democrat	Congressman (MO)	His first term in Congress, Gephardt voted pro-life 96 percent of the time. By his third term is was down to 64%. By 1989 it was down to 11%. He changed his position to saying that he would appoint Supreme Court justices who would preserve Roe v. Wade.	Gephardt told the pro-abortion group NARAL that his Baptist upbringing taught him abortion was wrong but, over time, friends and colleagues were able to convince him otherwise, "There is nothing moral in strong-arming a personal belief, and there is nothing moral to a presidency that imposes personal morality through acts of government power."	He would run for President in 1988 but his pro-abortion switch contributed to an unflattering view of him as a political opportunist without firm principles.
1980's	Edward Kennedy	Democrat	Senator (MA)	Kennedy began his political career opposed to abortion rights, writing in 1971 that "Wanted or unwanted, I believe that human life, even at its earliest stages, has certain rights which must be recognized." In April 1976, he would vote for a joint Senate resolution to define personhood as beginning at conception.	Sometime in the 1980's he would switch to pro-abortion and was often awarded a 100% positive rating from NARAL. In 1987 during the Supreme Court hearing of nominee Robert Bork, Kennedy assailed Bork as a jurist whose rulings would force women to resort to "back-alley abortions." March 12, 2003, he voted against banning partial-birth abortion.	He was never excommunicated for his pro-choice views in opposition to the church's teaching and authority. Kennedy was given a full Catholic burial.