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Obama Launches "False" Attack Ads Claiming McCain Opposes Embryo Research

By Hilary White

WASHINGTON, October 1, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Barack Obama's campaign has produced a radio ad claiming that John McCain and Sarah Palin are opposed to embryonic stem cell research, a claim that the non-partisan factcheck.org says is false.

"John McCain's out of touch with women today," says the ad's narrator. "McCain wants to take away our right to choose. That's what women need to understand. That's how high the stakes are."

"Stem cell research could unlock cures for diabetes, cancer and Alzheimer's, too. But John McCain has stood in the way. ... He's opposed stem cell research," the ad concludes.

McCain's camp and the Republican National Committee replied in kind with an ad saying that McCain supports "stem cell research to help free families from the fear and devastation of illness."

The Obama spots were denounced as false by factcheck.org, a nonpartisan, non-profit "consumer advocate" program for voters of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania that "aims to reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. politics."  Factcheck.org says that McCain has supported research using human embryos since 2001 and has not changed his position.

Factcheck.org found that while Obama's claims were false, two spots from the McCain-Palin campaign and Republican National Committee, describing McCain's support for the research are "largely accurate." The only criticism Factcheck.org made of the McCain spots was that it would tend to lead voters to believe that Sarah Palin shares her running mate's position. "That's not true," they said, "but we find that to be a minor flaw compared with the misrepresentation in Obama's ad."

While the McCain ads did not mention embryonic research specifically, but only "stem cell research" in general, Factcheck.org wrote that they had confirmed that Senator McCain had not changed his position in favor of embryonic stem cell research.  In 2004, McCain was one of 14 GOP members of Congress who signed a letter to Bush asking him to lift restrictions on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. In 2006, he was one of 19 Republicans to vote for federal funding for embryonic stem cell research, a bill that Bush vetoed. There was a similar vote in 2007, in which McCain voted the same way.

McCain does however appear to have recently altered his position which is now, unlike Obama, a significantly qualified support for embryonic stem cell research. He states that "recent scientific breakthroughs raise the hope that one day this debate (over using embryonic stem cells) will be rendered academic".

See also:
McCain, Obama Defend Embryonic Stem Cell Research
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/sep/08091905.html

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