Projo Politics Blog

First came an endorsement from the National Right to Life Committee.

Now actor and former Republican Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson can add the Rhode Island Right to Life Committee to the list of his backers for the presidency.

“In supporting me, those who have worked tirelessly to defend life are supporting a consistent conservative who has stood with them yesterday, who stands with them today, and will stand with them tomorrow,” said Thompson earlier this month when he snared the endorsement of the national arm of the anti-abortion group.

By emphasizing Thompson’s political potential, the anti-abortion group played down its own differences with Thompson, according to the Associated Press. An AP story out of Washington said: “Thompson has been at odds with the group because he doesn’t support a constitutional amendment outlawing abortion, a long-standing party platform plank; because he has called the Terri Schiavo right-to-die case a family matter; and because he backed campaign-finance regulations that the group considers a restriction of free speech.”

Explaining the choice at the time, the national group’s executive director, David N. O’Steen, said: “While there are various polls, and some are up-and-down, the overwhelming consensus has been that he is best-positioned to top pro-abortion candidate Rudy Giuliani for the Republican nomination.”

Rita Parquette, executive director of the Rhode Island chapter, explained the local chapter’s choice this way in a statement late last week: “Fred Thompson has had a strong, consistent pro-life record throughout his political career. Thompson opposes abortion and believes the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision was wrongly decided and must be reversed.”

In a recent interview, he also said Schiavo, the brain-damaged Florida woman who was allowed to die by a court in ’05, at the request of her husband, should have been kept alive.

kgregg@projo.com

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