In a story today on President Obama’s likely choice of Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius for Secretary of Health and Human Services, The New York Times glossed over the nominee’s radical pro-abortion record in two sentences: “One issue that could draw attention is her stance on abortion. A Roman Catholic who says abortion’s wrong, Ms. Sebelius vetoed a bill requiring clinics to report information on why a late-term abortion was performed, drawing the condemnation of the archbishop of Kansas City, Kan.”
The Times refuses to call the procedure what it manifestly is — a partial-birth abortion — choosing instead the values-neutral expression “late-term abortion.”
Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann has asked Sebelius to refrain from taking communion, due to “scandalous behavior that has misled people into dangerous behavior,” on the abortion issue.
In a May 26, 2008 column in The Washington Post, Robert Novak called the governor “the national pro-choice poster girl.”
Last April, Sebelius vetoed a bill to strengthen regulation of late-term abortions. She vetoed other restrictions on abortion in 2003, 2005 and 2006.
The governor personally recruited and funded a candidate to run against then-Attorney General Phil Kline, who was prosecuting partial-birth abortionist George Tiller. Thanks largely to money Sebelius raised for his opponent, Kline was defeated at the polls.
Tiller donated $120,000 to the Democratic Governors’ Association, which in turn contributed $200,000 to Sebelius’ PAC to fund pro-choice candidates, in what right-to-lifers allege to be a money-laundering scheme.
In April, 2007, Sebelius reportedly held a private party in the governor’s mansion for Tiller and the staff of his clinic, at a time when the abortionist was under investigation by the Attorney General’s Office.
If George W. Bush had nominated for Secretary of HHS a governor associated with Operation Rescue, you can bet The New York Times would have reported it in more than two sentences buried in an article touting the nominee as a well-qualified moderate.
@nytimes.com
