SALEM, OR, March 20, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In 2014, many power players in the Republican Party have said social issues must take a back seat to fiscal issues and anti-Obama rhetoric.
But writing at the blog RedState.com yesterday, Oregon Right to Life President Gayle Atteberry made it clear her group was not going to sit on the sidelines in the Oregon Senate race as Republicans vie to challenge Democrat Sen. Jeff Merkley.
The only political action committee to back state Rep. Jason Conger in his race against leading candidate and pediatrician Dr. Monica Wehby, Oregon Right to Life has given $5,000 to his campaign. Atteberry told LifeSiteNews that Conger is “a strong advocate for the unborn child.”
“Conger has been a state representative for four years, and has spoken in favor of, and sponsored, pro-life legislation,” says Atteberry. Sponsored legislation includes “a ban on abortions after the baby can feel pain,” according to Atteberry.
On his campaign website, however, Conger says he supports exceptions for rape, incest, and life of the mother, while at the same time saying he “believes that life begins at conception.”
In her post, Atteberry called Wehby – who is on the board of the American Medical Association and was in advertisements against the Affordable Care Act in 2009 – “proudly pro-abortion.” Wehby's “Issues” section of her campaign site does not mention abortion, but at a GOP candidates forum in January she reportedly said that abortion “is a personal decision between a women and her family, not a woman and the federal government.”
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A Catholic with four children, Wehby was quoted in October saying her faith helped her to be “personally pro-life,” but that “the Supreme Court ruled that this is, that abortion is supposed to be safe and legal. And that's where we are. I don't think this should be used as a litmus test for people.”
Earlier this month, Wehby was criticized by Planned Parenthood Advocates of Oregon for inviting pro-life Sen. Tom Coburn, R-OK, to a fundraiser. Before Coburn arrived, Wehby campaign manager Charlie Pearce told local news that Coburn and Wehby “don't agree on everything,” but agree regarding “limiting government waste, lower taxes, and a smaller more efficient government.”
Atteberry says her group “protested the Coburn event because he is a pro-life Senator backing a pro-abortion candidate.”
Conger has garnered the support of over 25 Oregon-based state representatives and state senators. Wehby has the backing of the Oregon Farm Bureau, the campaign arms of five Republican senators, and doctors. Medical political action committees, such as the American Medical Association, have also backed her.
In her Red State blog post, Atteberry said that Congor has raised more than 97 percent of his campaign funds from inside Oregon. Forty percent of Wehby's itemized donations have come from outside the state. In the last filing period of 2013 – which ended in December – Conger raised $214,000. Wehby raised $501,000.
Congor and Wehby have traded barbs on health care reform, including debating who is more against the Affordable Care Act. Congor voted to create a state exchange – he says it was better than letting the federal government create one – while Wehby worked on a reform option with Sen. Ron Wyden, D-OR, who currently heads the powerful Senate Finance Committee. In 2009 and 2010, Wyden worked on an alternative to what became the Affordable Care Act. His bill combined certain free market principles, but also allowed for funding abortions.
A single mother who lives down the street from her ex-husband, Wehby has been a major figure in Oregon and national health care debates, starting with a failed tort reform effort in 2004 and including service as president of the state's medical association. Recently, Dr. Ben Carson came to speak at a fundraiser for her, which garnered criticism from state Democrats.
Atteberry says she “think[s] it's absolutely shocking that [Wehby,] a pediatric neurosurgeon, who well knows the development of the unborn child, is okay with abortion.” However, in a Democratic-dominated state like Oregon, many state and national Republicans hope that her moderate views on immigration, abortion, and possibly same-sex “marriage” – she has been cagey on marriage – will allow her to become the first Republican elected statewide since 2002.
Neither campaign responded to requests for comment. Nor did Senator Coburn's office.