Colorado Right to Life blasts Schaffer for supporting Abramoff-client Mariana Islands.
Colorado Right to Life blasts Schaffer for supporting Abramoff-client Mariana Islands.
Colorado Right to Life is blasting former representative and current Senate candidate Bob Schaffer (R) “over his defense of human rights conditions in the Northern Mariana islands, an American territory where allegations that factory workers must undergo forced abortions are common”:
“The pro-life movement will no longer give a pass to candidates like Bob Schaffer who look the other way when Chinese women are forced to abort their children,” said Steve Curtis, spokesman for the group and former chairman of the Colorado Republican Party. “At best Schaffer was negligent investigating coerced abortion in the Mariana Islands,” he said. “Worse, he has voted for permanent normal trade relations with China, rewarding the regime that forces women to abort their children.”
In his defense, Shaffer told the Denver Post, “In five days, I did not observe a forced abortion or meet anybody who had any knowledge of them.” Schaffer has come under fire for boosting the Marianas after taking a a 1999 visit there funded by disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
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27 Responses to “Colorado Right to Life blasts Schaffer for supporting Abramoff-client Mariana Islands.”
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"Abramoff" is misspelled in the headline.
April 21st, 2008 at 2:56 pmThanks!
April 21st, 2008 at 2:57 pm“The pro-life movement will no longer give a pass to candidates like Bob Schaffer who look the other way when Chinese women are forced to abort their children,” said Steve Curtis, spokesman for the group and former chairman of the Colorado Republican Party. “At best Schaffer was negligent investigating coerced abortion in the Mariana Islands,” he said. “Worse, he has voted for permanent normal trade relations with China, rewarding the regime that forces women to abort their children.”
Funny how you're not very "pto life" about those being blown to bits in Iraq................
April 21st, 2008 at 3:01 pmSo let me get this straight. These women are basically held as slave labor with no rights whatsoever, and the only thing Curtis and company are concerned about are their fetuses?
April 21st, 2008 at 3:01 pmThat's rich. After years of the news being plastered all over the web and the CO right to life benefiting from this worthless Congressman and his "compassionate conservative" hypocritical cronies it now wants to disassociate itself from those who have supported it. About time, don'tcha think.
April 21st, 2008 at 3:07 pmOn the flip side, as one who "Right to Life" would describe as a 'Pro-Abortionist', I haven't observed "a forced abortion or meet anybody who had any knowledge of them" nor any unforced abortions for that matter, in all my 48 years of existence or in any of the 14 countries I've visited, on any given five-day period. Ergo anything beyond my realm of personal experience has never happened or doesn't exist.
On this basis I hereby declare my intention to run as a Republican candidate for the US Senate in 2008.
April 21st, 2008 at 3:10 pmShaffer told the Denver Post, “In five days, I did not observe a forced abortion or meet anybody who had any knowledge of them.
guess he signed up for the wrong tour... the forced abortions are scheduled on weekends.
what an amazingly stupid comment.
April 21st, 2008 at 3:12 pm#6 5th Estate Says:
Ergo anything beyond my realm of personal experience has never happened or doesn’t exist.
On this basis I hereby declare my intention to run as a Republican candidate for the US Senate in 2008.
I think you summed it up perfectly, you definitely have the Republican rhetoric down pat. LOL-Thanks
April 21st, 2008 at 3:17 pmIn his entire life, Shaffer has never seen God, nor met anyone who has met the diety. I guess that means he's an athiest.
April 21st, 2008 at 3:19 pm“In five days, I did not observe a forced abortion or meet anybody who had any knowledge of them.”
"I just stayed in my hotel room and watched porn."
April 21st, 2008 at 3:21 pmOh of course, RTL isn't bothered about the indentured servitude, or the rape, or their own silence and thus complicity--what bothers THEM is the FACT of abortions DEMANDED by the conditions under which women were forced to work and live.
It's the SYMPTOMS that are to be decried, NOT THE CAUSE, according to RTL, and only the individual enabler and not his suppprters who should now be punished--with temporary unemployment!
What happened to "hate the sin, not the sinner"?
April 21st, 2008 at 3:23 pmRTL is hating the sinner (Shaffer and these more than unfortunate women), but loving the sin (of abortion).
My question is what are they going to do about all the other human rights violations over there? Those women are treated like slaves.
They spruced up the place for Schaffer's visit for 5 days. And stopped hurting the women while he was there; I guess he never bothered to talk to any of them. What was I thinking, that would have cut into his time on the boat fishing and sunbathing.
He probably never went into the building. This way he didn't see anything he wasn't suppose to.
April 21st, 2008 at 3:26 pm"No forced abortions here in my hotel room. None in the lobby. Maybe there in the bar. No, none there, either. Hehe, hehe."
April 21st, 2008 at 3:28 pmlinda @ #7...
I flagged as 'recommend' for being so wicked.
Freedom Rebel:
Thanks.
April 21st, 2008 at 3:30 pmIt's the difference between progressives and conservatives. Progressives at least try to imagine what may be beyond their personal experience, Conservatives REFUSE to do so.
Bush, Cheney & McCain make an awfully strong argument FOR abortion...
April 21st, 2008 at 3:32 pmTTG...
LFG...
PLC..
Wicked pithy comments! Demonstrably sometimes less is more!
April 21st, 2008 at 3:33 pm“In five days, I did not observe a forced abortion or meet anybody who had any knowledge of them.”
Because you were too busy dodging machine gun fire and IED's going off.........
April 21st, 2008 at 3:36 pm5th Estate Says:
Oh of course, RTL isn’t bothered about the indentured servitude, or the rape, or their own silence and thus complicity–what bothers THEM is the FACT of abortions DEMANDED by the conditions under which women were forced to work and live.
April 21st, 2008 at 3:23 pm
Well, duh!
It's the "Right to Life" movement, not the "Right to QUALITY of Life" movement.
April 21st, 2008 at 3:41 pmMy dear and most estimable Mr H. Toasterhead (@ #18):
"Duh" indeed!
Bless your trousers, sir, and salud!
April 21st, 2008 at 3:50 pmWhy doesn't 'Right to Life' include stem cell research?
April 21st, 2008 at 4:00 pmBecause, Zimzone, you'd be dealing with real people getting better if there was stem cell research. We have to protect 'the babies,' even when they're just a couple of cells.
April 21st, 2008 at 4:03 pmWell, up to now, the Bob Schaffer-Mark Udall battle in Colorado has been a statistical tie (Udall has been ahead in the polls, but just barely, and within the margin of error).
Now that the right-to-lifers are attacking their own candidate, let's see what happens.
Any Coloradans in here? Can you shed any light as to how this might affet the race, if at all?
April 21st, 2008 at 4:08 pmBelieve it or not, I agree with Colorado Right To Life on this one point.
I support a woman's right to choose, and her pregnancy should be between her and her doctor, and abortion should be kept safe, legal, and (hopefully) rare.
However, when women are FORCED to have abortions, this is unconscionable. This has nothing to do with a woman's right to choose -- in fact, her "choice" is completely taken away from her.
The United States has too much invested in China to make a whole lot of noise about this issue, and must pretty much look the other way when it comes to China's abortion practices, even if those practices reach over to Chinese workers working outside of China.
Even though the Northern Mariana Islands is an American territory, and even though Schaffer's trip was an obvious Abramoff-paid boondoggle where Schaffer only saw what he was supposed to see, and even though Colorado Right To Life is correct in calling attention to this, I don't expect anything to be done. Our leaders will never offend the Chinese.
April 21st, 2008 at 4:21 pmIn my 5 days there, I didn't witness a forced abortion ?
Isn't that a tad weak ? Is he saying they didn't hold the abortions in the middle of the public square and toured him around the other side of the square ?
Is he saying that he didn't observe a forced abortion but observed a few dozen un-forced ones ?
April 21st, 2008 at 5:30 pmblink blink..wow..."pro life" group not blindly supporting the republican party regardless of how "pro death" the majority of thier policies are?
wow...just wow...
April 21st, 2008 at 8:09 pm>In my 5 days there, I didn’t witness a forced abortion ?
I think he forgot to mention he also got TEN rugs for five dollars
April 21st, 2008 at 8:10 pmGary Kleppe Says:
So let me get this straight. These women are basically held as slave labor with no rights whatsoever, and the only thing Curtis and company are concerned about are their fetuses?
They are also sex slaves, hence the forced abortions. The fundies obviously have no problem with sex slaves, but they should be forced to give birth to the result of the rape, rather being forced to abort it.
April 22nd, 2008 at 9:07 am