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Georgia Senate Election Runoff Pits Pro-Life Senator against Abortion Advocate

ATLANTA, November 25, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The December 2 runoff Senate election in Georgia pits pro-life incumbent Saxby Chambliss against abortion advocate Jim Martin.  The winner will gain a six-year term in the U.S. Senate.
 
“Based on his record, Jim Martin will support an extreme pro-abortion agenda if he is elected to the U.S. Senate,” says Douglas Johnson, a spokesman for National Right to Life.  Johnson, legislative director for the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), said that Chambliss has a perfect pro-life voting record throughout his service in the Senate.
 
For example, Chambliss voted in favor of the federal ban on partial- birth abortion (a method in which a living baby is delivered feet first, all except for the head, after which the skull is punctured and the brain removed). Chambliss also voted for legislation to require that an abortionist notify a parent before performing an abortion on a minor who is a resident of a different state.
 
In contrast, during his time in the Georgia legislature, Martin was "one of the legislature's most outspoken abortion-rights advocates," as the Florida Times-Union (Georgia edition) reported (March 26, 1997).
 
As chairman of the House Judiciary Committee in 1997, Martin refused to allow a vote on a bill to ban partial-birth abortion, even after 13 of the 16 members on his committee had cosponsored the bill. The legislature's Democratic leadership finally employed an unusual procedure to bypass Martin's committee and allow a floor vote on the ban, which passed by a three-to-one margin (132-43), with Martin voting against it.
 
Martin was also out of step with the vast majority of Georgia lawmakers on the question of whether a parent should be notified before an abortion is performed on a minor. In 1988, the Georgia House passed legislation to require notification of a parent, or a waiver from a court, before an abortion could be performed on a minor. The bill passed by a 9-to-1 margin (142-16), with Martin one of the minority of "no" votes.
 
"After the new Congress convenes in January, pro-abortion lawmakers will attempt to establish federal funding for abortion on demand, and to roll back other pro-life policies," Johnson said. "We need Senator Chambliss back in the Senate to help resist this radical pro-abortion agenda, an agenda that Martin would fully support."
 
Another item on the pro-abortion "wish list" is the radical "Freedom of Choice Act" (FOCA), a proposed federal law that would nullify virtually all state limits on abortion, including parental notification laws, and make partial-birth abortion legal again. President- elect Obama has endorsed enactment of the FOCA.

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