MO Gov Blunt Lies down with Anti Choice Dogs Wakes Up with Fleas.

[DanCa]

Blunt, Right to Life do battle over stem cells ahead of special
session
By Jo Mannies
Of the St Louis Post-Dispatch
08/15/2005


Gov. Matt Blunt has been really busy this summer. He and his wife are buying a new, larger house in downtown Springfield, Mo. He flew to Colorado last weekend to address All Children Matter, a
pro-voucher education group that spent more than $200,000 last year
to help him get elected. On Monday, Blunt flew to New York to defend
Missouri's record against sex offenders on Fox News' popular news-
talk show, "The O'Reilly Factor," with Bill O'Reilly. And throughout the summer, the governor has been writing a series of articles for The National Review and the Missouri Baptist Convention's Pathfinder, to defend his views against abortion and in favor of some forms of stem cell research. That's been necessary because of the counter-articles written by leaders of the group that backed Blunt's election but now has become Blunt's biggest nemesis: Missouri Right to Life.
The dispute between Blunt and Missouri Right to Life stems from
differences that erupted during the legislative session over a type
of therapeutic cloning called somatic nuclear transfer. He supports
it; most anti-abortion groups don't. That fight is blamed for
killing a separate anti-abortion bill that the governor is trying to
resurrect during next month's special session. Right to Life asserts that Blunt didn't make his stem cell position clear during last year's campaign. He says he did. Their rancor has reached such heights that some of the governor's allies have even explored the idea of promoting another group - southwest Missouri-based Alliance for Life - as an alternative way for Blunt to promote his anti-abortion views and record. All of this serves as a backdrop for the private meetings that certain legislative "point people" held a few weeks ago with various anti-abortion leaders, to discuss what would and what wouldn't be in the special session. As Larry Weber with the Missouri Catholic Conference characterized the meetings: "We said we'd like to deal with (abortion) in a comprehensive manner. They said that wasn't going to happen." Sam Lee, head of Campaign Life Missouri, said he was told that the special session's work on abortion will deal primarily with provisions that would require that abortion clinics be licensed as ambulatory surgical centers, and that would impose penalties for anyone other than the parents or guardians who transport minors across state lines for abortions. (The latter is aimed, in part, at curbing Missourians' use of clinics in Illinois, which doesn't have a parental-consent requirement.) Lee and Weber both said they would like additional legislation to discourage abortion and promote alternatives. They were told one problem is the lack of state money.

"We'd love to have direct contact with the governor's office," Lee
added. "But for whatever reason, they're at arm's length right now."
That's not the case for Alliance for Life Missouri Inc., and its
president, John McCastle. Alliance for Life primarily works with
pregnancy centers and related abortion-alternative operations around
the state. McCastle and about a dozen of those centers' executives met with the legislators on July 14. "We were pleasantly surprised that the governor heard about the meeting and wanted to meet with us," McCastle said. Blunt then showed up. McCastle now is arranging for some Blunt staffers to tour some of the pregnancy centers. At that July 14 meeting, McCastle said, he also was told by the Senate leaders that "they'd like to see the Alliance for Life become
more prominent, more public in the state." McCastle emphasized that his group was in no position to replace Missouri Right to Life, which he praised. Alliance for Life Missouri Inc. is federally registered as a 501c3, which means it can't endorse candidates. Right to Life is set up differently; it can endorse. Missouri Right to Life President Pam Fichter said her group hasn't been told what anti-abortion provisions will be in the special-session bill. "We're just hopeful that the governor will propose good, substantial legislation," she said. She said it was unfortunate that the group has gotten into a writing war with Blunt, but "we had to correct the statements that were out
there."

Meanwhile, the Missouri Democratic Party appears to be taking some
pleasure in the Blunt-Right to Life fight, in part because of the
hammering that Democrats have taken over their party's abortion
rights platform. Said Democratic Party spokesman Jack Cardetti: "All this session is going to do is highlight the biggest intra-party fight that Republicans are having right now." Blunt spokesman Spence Jackson replied that the state needed fewer abortions and "less political rhetoric from pro-abortion extremists like Jay Nixon and Claire McCaskill," referring to the state attorney general and state auditor, both Democrats, who are spoiling to take on Blunt in 2008.
One anti-abortion activist said privately that the Blunt and Right
to Life fight underscores the importance of verifying where
candidates stand before endorsing them for office. The activist
added with a sigh: "You could see this train wreck on the horizon
last summer."