MCCL backs Cravaack over Oberstar
Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life. a group opposed to legalized abortion, is backing Republican Chip Cravaack over DFL Rep. Jim Oberstar in Minnesota's 8th Congressional District.
MCCL has backed Oberstar in past elections. Here's the release from MCCL:
"Chip Cravaack exemplifies everything the people of Minnesota's 8th District look for in a candidate for Congress," said MCCL Executive Director Scott Fischbach. "Cravaack has a passionate dedication to uphold the constitutional right to life and to protect our country's most vulnerable citizens - the unborn."
Cravaack has made the protection of lives threatened by abortion, infanticide and euthanasia central to his campaign. He strongly believes in the inalienable right to life from conception to natural death. Cravaack opposes the destruction of human embryos for experimentation and supports ethical adult stem cell research, which "has shown great possibilities and does not trade one life to save another," he has stated.
Cravaack and Jim Oberstar, the current 8th District congressman, differ sharply on these issues and on the Obama health care overhaul, which instituted health care rationing and taxpayer funding of abortion. Less than a month before voting for the Obama health care bill, Oberstar stated, "I will not vote for a health care bill that doesn't have the [pro-life] House abortion language in it." The House language, which would have prohibited taxpayer funded abortion, was removed from the final bill, but Oberstar abandoned his pledge and voted in favor of it. He also led an effort to lobby pro-life Democrats in the U.S. House to vote for final passage of the Obama health care bill, even though it included rationing and abortion funding.
"Jim Oberstar has turned away from the pro-life principles he used to hold in common with the citizens of the 8th District," Fischbach said. "He has walked away from the pro-life movement. For years Jim Oberstar has had a 100 percent pro-life voting record and now he has a zero percent pro-life voting record. Just as Jim Oberstar has abandoned the babies, it is time for the voters to retire Jim Oberstar."
Fortunately, voters have a strong pro-life candidate in Chip Cravaack. MCCL Federal PAC urges the people of Minnesota's 8th District to vote for Chip Cravaack. He is the candidate with the courage and conviction to protect unborn babies, senior citizens, disabled persons and everyone else who life is threatened by abortion, health care rationing and other dangers.
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Update: Here's a fact-check on whether the federal health care law allows federal funding to cover abortions.
Update:
Oberstar's campaign spokesman John Schadl says voters know Oberstar opposes abortion.
"It's regrettable I think that this decision has been made but people know who Jim is and what his values are. I don't know that this is going to be a game changer. I think we'll work a little harder to just restate Jim's values."
Schadl says Oberstar worked to ensure that federal funds wouldn't be spent on abortions when Congress debated the federal health care overhaul bill earlier this year.