[The following is a post from Valerie Martin, my campaign manager]
On Saturday, Laura Clawson posed an interesting question to Kos readers, one that is definitely worth answering. So, is Ayotte with Palin on abortion?
You betcha.
Kelly Ayotte is the most anti-choice woman to run for statewide office in New Hampshire history. So it came as no surprise to see Ayotte front and center at Palin’s anti-choice Susan B. Anthony event in Washington, or to see Palin single Ayotte out as a “bold, brave” candidate. Their friendship is not only the latest blow to the conventional “wisdom” that Kelly Ayotte was going to run as a moderate Republican candidate – but it is a frightening example of how she would be a starkly anti-choice, right-wing Senator.
When it comes to a woman’s control over her own body, Kelly Ayotte is as right-wing as they come. She’s been actively campaigning against choice in the Republican primary, and her appearance at the Susan B. Anthony event with Palin shows exactly what kind of Senator she would be. Furthermore, she has a frightening record from her time as attorney general in New Hampshire.
During her tenure in the AG’s Office, the courts here struck down an anti-choice state law because it lacked an explicit exception for health emergencies. What does that mean? It means that New Hampshire’s law was so narrow that it wouldn’t allow choice - even when it was necessary to save a young woman's health.
Federal courts found this unconstitutional, but Kelly Ayotte disagreed. So she decided on her own, over the objections of the Governor and the will of the overwhelmingly pro-choice people of New Hampshire, to spend taxpayer money to take Ayotte v. Planned Parenthood all the way to the Supreme Court.
This is no middle-of-the-road position. There is nothing moderate about a woman so anti-choice that she opposed safeguards in the moments when a woman’s health is threatened by her pregnancy.
New Hampshire women are fierce when it comes to freedom. In a state where we ‘live free or die,’ our ability to have control over our own bodies is as fundamental as our grassroots involvement in who we elect to represent us.
In 2008, New Hampshire rejected Sarah Palin, a far-right, anti-choice woman who abandoned her office to run for a higher one.
In 2010, it looks like Kelly Ayotte is giving us a chance to do that again.
(Cross-posted at Blue Hampshire)