According to a new CNN-TIME Election Monitor, a clear majority of Pat Buchanan’s supporters want the Republican platform to include a call for a constitutional amendment to ban abortion. In contrast, of supporters of the other major Republican candidates, less than a quarter want such an amendment. The survey interviewed 1,002 registered Republicans between February 24 and 27.
News sources reported last week that co-chair of Buchanan’s national campaign Michael Farris attended a January event that honored people convicted of killing abortion clinic workers and of bombing abortion clinics, and advocated using violence to prevent abortion. The organizer of the event, Michael Bray, has signed a “justifiable homicide” petition and acknowledged Farris from the podium.
Feminist Majority president Eleanor Smeal was quoted last week in the Kansas City Star as saying “It’s chilling that one of the national co-chairs of a presidential candidate attended a banquet where convicted felons, including murderers, were honored and praised. The people in his campaign are hanging out with people who are extreme not only on race but on sexual equality issues,” said Smeal. Although Farris maintains he left the event early, Smeal pointed out that he “never denounced it or said These people are going too far.'”
