Wednesday, March 22, 2006

Open Letter to the Alan Sandals Campaign About NOW PAC Endorsement Flip-flop

Did Alan Sandals change his position on parental notification and consent for abortion to curry favor with NOW PAC? Let's get to the bottom of this flip-flop (Sandals...flip-flop...oy) issue. I wrote a letter to the Sandals campaign addressing the matter. Let's see how they respond.
To whom it may concern:

First and foremost, congratulations on the NOW PAC endorsement. It is certainly great news for Pennsylvania that NOW PAC has endorsed someone other than Bob Casey, Jr. for US Senate.

I would like to know Mr. Sandals' current position on parental notification and consent for abortion. According to an interview with PoliticsPhilly.com () on August 1st, Mr. Sandals stated the following:
My view is to recognize the traditional Roe v. Wade approach. The hardest question, and I appreciate it more now being a father, is how to deal with situations where a parent would appropriately want to know, for all the best reasons, if some procedure were going to be done for a daughter who is a minor. But the laws in most states correctly say that if the minor has reason to fear that there will be some physical violence or some emotional repercussions, then there must be ways to get consent without parental involvement. Limited parental notification and consent requirements are about the only condition or qualification that I would think is appropriate [emphasis my own].
Recently, I have heard rumors that Mr. Sandals' position on parental notification and consent for abortions has changed. Is he no longer in favor of "limited parental notification and consent requirements?" If this is the case, I find it quite troubling in light of the NOW PAC endorsement. My immediate assumption would be that Mr. Sandals changed his position in order to curry favor with NOW PAC. While I approve of Mr. Sandals as a pro-choice candidate, I am concerned about his susceptibility to special interests. If this is all bogus, please correct me. I'll be happy. But if he changed his mind on this issue--on any issue--because an interest group offered him money and publicity, then who knows where his allegiances are. Will Mr. Sandals change his mind when ExxonMobil, Citibank, or Alcoa offers him money?

Cheers,
Shlomo Boudreaux
Update:

Blogger keeps giving me an html error for the link to PoliticsPhilly. See my previous post for the link.

Update:

The Sandals campaign forwarded my letter to Alan Sandals himself. More to come...
From: Rebecca Cesarz
Reply-To: rebecca@alansandals.com
To: The Cajun Jew
Date: Mar 22, 2006 2:56 PM
Subject: RE: Mr. Sandals' position on parental notification and consent for abortion
Reply | Reply to all | Forward | Print | Add sender to Contacts list | Delete this message | Report phishing | Show original | Message text garbled?

Dear Schlomo.

I have forwarded your email to Alan.

Thanks for contacting the campaign.

Rebecca Cesarz

Webmaster

Alan Sandals for US Senate

www.alansandals.com

1 Comments:

At 5:39 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Shlomo,

This is an excellent letter. It really gets at the heart of the matter. If Sandals did some research and came to realize that there are some valid reasons to not require parental notification / consent then good for him. But I find his sudden 360 on the issue very suspicious.

I doubt you'll even get a reply. If you do they'll probably claim that he doesn't take money from corporations, only ideological PACs. I think he has claimed that before.

By the way, Chuck's position on notification is that he supports a juidicial bypass in case of emergencies. He even said it doesn't have to be a parent; but some adult should be available to offer counseling to a minor undergoeing an abortion. (i.e. a social worker). It seems like a very reasonable position.

Unfortunately the NOW PAC wouldn't accept that. I think you may be on to something in your earlier post. Perhaps they chose Sandals because he will take their money.

Davey D

 

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