FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: MELINDA SHELTON, 767; IN NEW HAMPSHIRE: BETH CORBIN, (603)228-9368
The National Organization for Women takes issue with the false and misleading Union Leader editorial ["Arnie's Whopper," Monday, Oct. 14] concerning candidate Arnie Arnesen. Editorial page director Richard Lessner accuses the candidate of "telling a whopper" about the life-saving abortion procedure known as dilation and extraction (D&X), but Lessner is the one whose nose is growing.
Lessner is conducting what so many of his extremist allies have attempted: a last-minute smear campaign of misinformation designed to discredit candidates who support abortion rights and to divert attention from efforts of religious political extremists in Congress to cut family planning funds.
FALSE: Lessner claims the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) "never has endorsed" the procedure. Wrong.
TRUE: The April 9, 1996, letter from Dr. Ralph W. Hale, ACOG executive director, addressed to President Clinton clearly supports Clinton's veto of the bill banning the D&X procedure. ACOG also "finds [it] very disturbing that Congress would take any action that would supersede medical judgment of trained physicians and criminalize medical procedures that may be necessary to save the life of a woman."
FALSE: Lessner says "not one residency program in any hospital teaches it." Wrong again.
TRUE: Dr. Trent MacKay surveyed medical schools in 1991 and found that 58.7 percent provided optional training in late-term abortion procedures, while 6.7 percent provided routine (i.e. required) training. Only one-third of the medical schools did not provide any late-term abortion training.
FALSE: Lessner states "no medical journal ever has published an article on the practice." Wrong.
TRUE: There is substantial medical journal literature for Lessner's reading. A trip to a library would have revealed numerous scientific articles in Family Planning Perspectives and many other scholarly journals. In fact, this battle over late-term abortion was started by an abortion opponent who read the medical literature and decided such material could be used -- and misconstrued -- to put politicians on the "hot seat" and possibly eliminate a few more pro-choice members of Congress.
Lessner's abuse of his position as the Union Leader's editorial page director by writing such untruths is a disservice to his profession, to his readers who expect truth and accuracy in writing, and to the candidate.
Lessner charged Arnesen with "wrapping herself in the mantle of NOW and the abortion rights league," but conveniently neglected to mention that scores of medical, religious, social service and women's organizations oppose the late-term abortion ban. In fact, a Hickman-Brown poll reported that a majority of people in the U.S. support access to this medical procedure when a woman's health is endangered -- which the congressional bill would have prohibited.
NOW supports the right of all women, as established by Roe v. Wade and affirmed by Planned Parenthood v. Casey, to make decisions concerning their individual reproductive lives. This especially includes our support of a woman facing a situation where continuation of a pregnancy threatens her life or her health, including her future fertility.
The D&X procedure is the safest available for some of these women, according to medical experts, and it is protected by Supreme Court decisions when the procedure is necessary to preserve a woman's health or life. Women and their doctors -- not politicians and biased journalists -- should decide whether the procedure is needed.
NOW salutes Arnie Arnesen for her brave stand in the face of such bitter and misleading attacks, and we deplore the behavior of opponents who believe they can get away with telling the real "whoppers."