News

By Kathleen Gilbert

NEW YORK, December 18, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Caroline Kennedy, the daughter and only living offspring of former president John F. Kennedy, has expressed interest in Hillary Clinton’s soon-to-be-vacated senate seat. 

Although the Roman Catholic has revealed few of her beliefs in the public forum, her tight relationship with President-elect Obama, her comprehensive “right to privacy” advocacy and the fact that she has sought and received the support of an abortion extremist group, paints a disappointing picture for pro-life Catholics hoping for a voice to plead for the unborn.

According to an Associated Press report, among the calls Kennedy recently made looking for potential allies was one to Kelli Conlin, president of the abortion extremist group NARAL of New York.

“I really do see her as someone who could take up the mantle that Hillary has sort of started in terms of commitment to reproductive health care,’’ Conlin said of Kennedy.

“If Caroline is chosen because people believe she will follow the footsteps of Hillary Clinton – or chosen because of her last name – that would solidify our concern that she would be as ruthless toward unborn children and their mothers as Clinton and [Kennedy’s] uncle, Ted Kennedy,” noted Wendy Wright of Concerned Women for America.

Senator Hillary Clinton has earned one of the most immaculately pro-abortion reputations in American politics, and her advocacy for the unlimited “right” to abortion has been one of the long-standing pillars of her political career.  Ted Kennedy, a senator from Massachusetts, has a 100% pro-choice rating from NARAL.

The prerogative to appoint the new senator belongs to New York’s Gov. David Paterson, and so far many consider Kennedy a likely pick due to her star status and fundraising history, despite her having no experience in public office. 

Kennedy stepped into the public forum earlier this year as the head advisor of President-elect Obama’s VP search, and since then she has repeatedly expressed high admiration for Obama.  In a New York Times op-ed piece entitled “A President Like My Father,” Kennedy expanded on her opinion of Obama.

“I have never had a president who inspired me the way people tell me that my father inspired them. But for the first time, I believe I have found the man who could be that president — not just for me, but for a new generation of Americans,” she wrote.

Kennedy spoke at NARAL’s Power of Choice Luncheon in October as a representative of the Obama administration.  Kennedy’s speech was billed as reinforcing “the multiple reasons this election is so important for the country’s future.”

One of the few public mentions of her own take on life issues was printed in her 1995 book co-authored by Ellen Alderman entitled “A Right to Privacy,” in which Kennedy discussed the battle for women’s right to abortion and contraception in the context of a shrinking right to privacy.