Gore Tries To Make Point on Abortion

Gore Tries To Make Point on Abortion

By Sandra Sobieraj
Associated Press Writer
Wednesday, Feb. 2, 2000; 5:58 p.m. EST

WASHINGTON –– Under scrutiny for old anti-abortion views, Al Gore hustled off the presidential campaign trail Wednesday in hopes of casting a tie-breaking Senate vote demonstrating he's squarely in support of abortion rights. But Republicans denied him that drama.

The Senate passed a bill on a minor abortion-related matter 80-17, leaving the vice president with no vote to cast and nothing much to do.

"We're never going to let him break a tie vote again," Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott said, mindful of Gore's frequent campaign boasting about the vote he cast last year to pass a gun control bill.

The spectacle played out the morning after Gore's uncomfortably close Democratic primary win over Bill Bradley in New Hampshire. Bradley narrowed Gore's advantage with women by disputing his contention that he had always been for abortion rights and calling attention to dozens of anti-abortion votes or statements Gore made as a Tennessee congressman until the mid-1980s.

Gore's hectic trip to Washington left Bradley smiling. "How did the vote turn out?" asked Bradley, also campaigning in New York. "The vice president didn't cast the tie-breaking vote, I guess. I'd rather be in New York."

As president of the Senate, Gore could have voted to break a tie, and had rushed to Washington from New York thinking the Senate might be deadlocked.

The vice president left New York in such a hurry that he even beat Air Force Two to Washington.

Sleepless from a post-midnight flight out of New Hampshire and a predawn wake-up call for TV talk shows, Gore was glad-handing New York commuters in Grand Central Station when Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota reached him by cell phone to tell him the vote looked close and could come in a little more than two hours.

En route to LaGuardia airport, aides called from the motorcade to book seats for Gore and a mini-detail of Secret Service agents on a US Airways shuttle. Air Force Two's crewmembers, still at their hotel and not scheduled to fly until the afternoon, could not be mobilized that quickly in a non-emergency.

But Gore arrived on Capitol Hill to find Republicans lining up in favor of the bill.

"Theater," Sen. Bob Kerrey, D-Neb., a Bradley supporter, said of the day's stagecraft. "Just when you thought you've seen it all."

The bill in question would prohibit people found to have violated laws protecting abortion clinics from using bankruptcy proceedings to escape fines and civil judgments. Republicans denied they backed the bill merely to stop Gore from voting, even while making it clear they did not much like the legislation.

Gathering with nearly 20 Democratic senators and representatives before the vote, Gore said: "The larger point we want to make here is women must have the right to choose."

His lead among women was in the teens in some tracking polls a week before the New Hampshire primary but Bradley shrunk the gap as he criticized the vice president for being untruthful on his abortion record and other matters.

Exit polls found Gore won among women by 6 percentage points – 53-47 – and that women made up the biggest part of the Democratic electorate.

While Gore's record in the Senate from 1986 until he moved to the White House in 1993 was scored solidly in favor of abortion rights by activists, his earlier words and votes are at odds with his claim in New Hampshire that he has "always been pro-choice." Under questioning, Gore later admitted he has changed his mind on some abortion matters.

In the House, Gore supported amending the definition of "person" in civil rights legislation to include a fetus. He also opposed Medicaid financing of abortion in all cases – including rape and incest – except where the woman's life was in danger.

In 1984 Gore wrote "It is my deep personal conviction that abortion is wrong ... innocent human life must be protected." And in 1987 he equated abortion with the "the taking of human life," a statement he later retracted.

Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y., said Gore's previous stance is familiar to abortion-rights activists and she did not expect its resurrection now to resonate much in New York, where Bradley has a chance to wound Gore in the March 7 primary.

The right to abortion "is a very big issue up there, but whatever he used to be, I'm glad he's with us now," she said.

Bradley spokesman Eric Hauser said abortion rights are "such a fundamental principle, and given how strongly pro-life (Gore) was before, he should explain why he changed."

After the day's drama, Air Force Two caught up with Gore at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland, and he then flew west to campaign in Ohio and California.

At Ohio State University, more than 1,000 students cheered Gore, who said his campaign was "in the end zone." He made no mention of his hectic morning efforts.

Gore accepted the endorsement of Columbus Mayor Michael P. Coleman, who took office on Jan. 1 as the city's first Democratic mayor in 28 years. Looking ahead to the state's March 7 primary, Gore asked students to help him organize in every county. "Right here in Ohio where the rubber meets the ground, where the grass roots begin ... you can make the decisive difference," he said.