They point out the Bush ads make a fairly complex situation and turn it into something too simple. Bush is anti-abortion while Kerry is, overall, pro-choice.
In fact, for the past 20 years Kerry has received a perfect 100% from the National Abortion Rights Action League. Meanwhile he has been getting 0% from the National Right to Life Committee whose PAC actively endorses President Bush.
The ad says "Kerry voted against parental notification for teenage abortions." In 1991 Kerry voted against the a particular "parental notification" amendment. It was
a measure that would have required that parents or guardians be notified 48 hours in advance of any abortion on a pregnant daughter under 18 performed by any organization receiving federal family-planning funds.
The Coats Amendment ending up passing through the Senate.
The reasons that Kerry voted against this wasn't because he didn't agree with the overall amendment. Rather, Kerry thought that the limited exceptions were too narrow. The two exceptions included situations where the pregnancy occurred because of "incest with a parent or guardian," or if a physician determined that an emergency abortion was necessary to save the life of the mother.
Kerry supported a measure that would allow an abortion without parental consent if the physician determined the female "is mature enough and competent to provide consent" herself, or if the doctor determined that notifying the parent or guardian would lead to abuse or "is not in the best interest of the minor."
Ultimately neither the Coats amendment nor the Kerry-backed measure became law.
Next the ad says that "Kerry even voted to allow schools to hand out the morning-after pill without parent's knowledge."
First this measure had very little to do with parental notification, but Kerry did vote to allow schools to give emergency contraception to teenagers.
In 2000 Jesse Helms of North Carolina proposed an amendment to bar the use of federal funds "for the distribution or provision of postcoital emergency contraception" to anyone under age 18 in an elementary or secondary school.
The morning after pill is effective up to 72 hours after sexual intercourse to stop the implantation of a fertilized egg in the uterus. This pill is opposed by anti-abortion groups because, as they say,
Implantation is simply the process by which new life gets nutrition; so it causes the death of that new life.
--Wendy Wright, spokesperson for the Concerned Women of America.
Kerry voted against the Helms Amendment which later died.
As you can see it isn't as simple as the Bush campaign makes it seem. Personally, I believe that the broader exceptions are a good thing when it comes to abortions. Furthermore, I think that the morning after pill should be left as a matter of school policy decided by local governments.
