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Jimmy Carter's Son: "I'm pro-choice as far as a woman choosing, but I'm against abortion"

By John-Henry Westen

LAS VEGAS, February 20, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Jack Carter, 58, the eldest son of former U.S. President Jimmy Carter has announced he is seeking the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate to represent Nevada.  At his launch, Carter spoke with reporters revealing his schizophrenic stand on abortion - a stand similar to that of his father.

Speaking with the Associated Press' Kathleen Hennessey, Carter described his abortion views saying, ""I'm a personal freedoms person. I don't want the government to come in and tell my child or whoever it is that they can't have an abortion.  I'm pro-choice as far as a woman choosing, but I'm against abortion."

Stephen F. Hayward, PhD., wrote a 2004 book on Jimmy Carter noting the former President's political exploitation of abortion.  In an interview with National Review, Hayward recalled Carter's abortion stand: "The 1976 campaign was the first national election after the Roe decision, and the politics of the issue were still sorting themselves out. Remember that Gerald Ford was pro-abortion, while many Democrats, including Sargent Shriver, one of Carter's rivals, were pro-life. In the Iowa caucuses, which Carter put on the map for the first time, Carter told Catholic audiences (and a gathering of bishops) that he opposed abortion and supported legislation to restrict it, thus cutting into Shriver's support. But he told feminist groups at the same time that he supported abortion rights (indeed, he had done so as governor of Georgia)."

The AP report reveals Jack Carter is Baptist and has, together with his wife Elizabeth, four children from previous marriages.

In 2000, LifeSiteNews.com reported that President Carter left the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC).  Carter said at the time that the SBC had adopted policies "that violate the basic premises of my Christian faith," including a denominational statement that prohibits women from being pastors and tells wives to be submissive to their husbands.

However, Morris H. Chapman, chairman of the SBC Executive Committee, noted that Carter, who was originally embraced by Baptist conservatives in 1976 when he publicly described himself as a born-again Christian, lost favour with conservative Christians after such actions as appointing Sarah Weddington - the lead attorney in the landmark 1973 abortion case, Roe v. Wade - to the White House position when he was assistant to the president.

See Carter's campaign page and the AP coverage:
http://www.carterfornevada.com/bio
http://www.pahrumpvalleytimes.com/2006/02/15/news/carter.html

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