Republican leaders, urged by some party elders to focus the fall election campaign on the economy and not divisive social issues, are instead ramping up an anti-abortion campaign against President Obama.
“This guy is the ‘abortion president,’” said New Jersey Rep. Chris Smith, who for three decades has co-chaired the House pro-life caucus. “This election is the most important in our lifetime. This is a transitional election,” he added.
Smith, who just received the Henry J. Hyde award for Americans United for Life for his career dating back to his days as a pro-life organizer at Trenton State College in 1972, told Secrets that the movement is eager to battle Obama over the pro-abortion mandate he leveled on religious institutions and support for Planned Parenthood.
“I think this is going to be a big issue,” he said, adding that it is good for his efforts when pro-choice groups run ads against the anti-abortion crowd because it reminds the public of where each side stands on the issue.
GOP officials said that Mitt Romney, while pro-life, may not make abortion a key point in his economic-focused campaign, but others will push the issue because it has received new attention due to the fight for Obamacare and the battle between anti-abortion Catholics and the administration.
Smith is also concerned that pro-abortion initiatives are being pushed in Obamacare and in U.S. overseas programs, something he would fight if he succeeds in his bid to become the next chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee next year. “To me the right to life is the most elemental right,” he said.
In receiving his Hyde award, Smith noted that even his wife is deeply involved in the anti-abortion movement, something that brought the two together at Trenton State. He said that when he helped create a pro-life caucus at the school, she joined in but rejected his requests for a date. So he made her treasurer of the group and eventually they became a couple.
‘I wore her down,” he joked, adding, “this movement is also a dating service.”
