Pro-Family Activist Questions GOP's Choice of Pro-Abortion RNC Co-Chair
by Allie Martin
January 25, 2005
(AgapePress) - An Ohio-based Christian organization is calling the Republican National Committee to task for naming an abortion advocate as its new co-chairman. Last Wednesday the RNC unanimously elected "pro-choice" National Committeewoman Jo Anne Davidson of Ohio to the post. Phil Burress, president of Citizens for Community Values, says his group cannot understand why the RNC approved the appointment of former Ohio House of Representatives member to its second highest position. In fact, he questions whether a person with Davidson's pro-abortion beliefs should even belong to a party with a pro-life platform.
Davidson has said that her personal beliefs on abortion are not an issue and that she will follow the President Bush's lead and carry out whatever his policies are. But for Burress this still raises a question: "With all the pro-family, pro-life people that we have out there in the Republican Party," he says, "why is she a Republican in the first place? I mean, that's the Democrats' platform -- pro-death. And so why does she call herself a Republican -- and secondly, why does she end up with the second-most powerful position [in the RNC]?"
A spokesman for the RNC states that Davidson was approved for the position of co-chair because she was instrumental in helping Bush carry the State of Ohio in last November's election. But Burress has concerns about what her appointment says to conservative, pro-family Americans about the GOP's commitment to the sanctity of life.
"The platform of the Republican Party says that they are pro-life," the CCV spokesman says, "but yet they have appointed Joann Davidson ... one of the founding members of Republicans for Choice. We just don't understand that. What kind of message are they sending us out here in grassroots America? What does the party stand for?"
Davidson was a member of the Ohio House of Representatives for 20 years and served as Speaker of the House from 1995 to 2000. Bush-Cheney '04 Regional Campaign Chairman Ralph Reed says in working closely with the former congresswoman during the campaign, he found her to be "totally committed" to building a strong grassroots coalition for the GOP across the U.S. and "unwavering" in her support of President Bush's agenda.
Allie Martin, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
