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Gore = Anti-Choice

From Gore's Broken Promises Archive, <votenader.com/brokenpromise/brokenpromisesarchive.html>
2 November 2000

#4 SIGNING A FREEDOM OF CHOICE ACT

In "Putting People First", Clinton and Gore promised to sign a Freedom of Choice Act, in order to "ensure that a woman's right to choose is not jeopardized by a Supreme Court reversal or limitation of Roe v. Wade." It didn't happen, in part because Clinton and Gore refused to fight for it. As Fred Barnes reported in New Republic, Clinton and Gore "made no effort to broker the dispute that derailed the Freedom of Choice Act" in the summer of 1993. Barnes explains that this

Gore had only 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, and 2000 to go back and fix this -- not enough time, apparently, for poor Gore! The following may expalin why..

wasn't surprising: Clinton and Gore always try to reap the benefits of their position in favor of reproductive freedom without risking much politically. As Bill Bradley noted during his fight for the Democratic nomination, Gore has flip-flopped on a women's right to choose, and long tried to conceal the fact. In fact, AS A CONGRESSMAN, GORE COMPILED A SUBSTANTIAL ANTI-CHOICE RECORD, voting for the Hyde Amendment that banned federal funding for abortions for poor women, and to deny federal funding to hospitals and clinics that perform abortions.

Of course if you're poo then no money = no abortion, so this is tantamous to anti-arotion for poor women. Even Republican believe in abortoins for rich women, though they seldom admit it -- in a rare moment of honesty "anti-abortion" Quayle admitted when he ran that if it were a relative of his who wanted to make such a choice he would "understand". So the differences between Republicans and Gore rae, as the prevoius essay more eloquently shows, are between abortoins only for the rich (Bush) or mostly for hte Rich and well-off but not the workign class/poor.

#11 - Gays in the Military

Throughout the '92 campaign, candidates Clinton and Gore pledged to end discrimination against gays and lesbians in the military. In Putting People First, they promised to "repeal the ban on gays and lesbians from military or foreign service." That unqualified promise was broken almost as soon as Clinton and Gore met resistance from military leaders (though it was known all along that the military opposed ending the ban). The administration ended up accepting an awful compromise, the current "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" charade that HAS LED TO THE DISCHARGE OF 67% MORE gay and lesbian troops than were being discharged under the previous policy! As columnist Bob Herbert put it plainly in the New York Times, "He didn't fight, he caved." Equally telling are the words of Tom Stoddard, director of the Campaign for Military Service: "He raised this issue as a matter of principle. You can't simply split the difference on matters of principle."

#13 UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE

During the '92 campaign, Clinton and Gore assailed the Bush Administration for lacking a universal health care plan. Putting People First rightly noted that the United States "is the only advanced country in the world without a national health care plan" and promised that "in the first year of a Clinton-Gore administration, that will change." Though they tried to keep this promise, their [Exceedingly generous of Nader to call this secret meetings with HMOs behind-closed-doors, locking out grassroots advocates, "Trying" to keep a promise -HB] health care plan catered to the very corporate interests that caused the problem in the first place. Hillary Clinton's health care task force worked in secret, and spent more time talking to HMOs and insurance companies than to physicians and ordinary Americans. The result was a terribly complex, heavily bureaucratic approach to health care that was defeated and never resurrected. Clinton and Gore have taken a piecemeal approach to health care ever since, and the United States remains the only Western democracy in the world that doesnt guarantee health care to its citizens. Eight years after Clinton and Gore wrote health care should be a right, not a privilege, around ten million more Americans are without health care coverage.

_Ralph Naders Statement on Universal Health Care_

NADER SAYS CLINTON-GORE PRESIDES OVER DETERIORATION OF FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION

CHICO, CA, OCT 23-Ralph Nader charged today that the Clinton-Gore Administration has presided over the deterioration of the Food and Drug Administration, once considered the world's premiere drug-safety agency.

Today, FDA approves drugs that would have been rejected in the past because of doubts about their safety or effectiveness," Nader said. "As a result American lives are at risk."

Nader cited the drug Rezulin as a prime example of problems at FDA. This spring, Rezulin was taken off the market after causing hundreds of cases of severe liver toxicity and at least 63 deaths. Rezulin was the FOURTH drug pulled off the market from among those approved in 1997. Only one other time since 1970 were as many as two FDA-approved drugs were taken off the market. [Emph. added --HB]

Nader said a confidential survey conducted in 1998, FDA medical officers-the physicians responsible for primary reviews of new drug applications-identified more than two dozen drugs they believed were mistakenly approved. The physicians reported stepped up pressure from superiors, Congress and the drug industry to approve a high proportion of new drugs.

"Not surprisingly, the drug industry is celebrating the lax approach at the Clinton-Gore FDA," Nader said. "In surveys, drug and medical device industry executives say they have a more positive attitude about FDA than at any previous time."

Nader said the so-called FDA Modernization Act of 1997 and other legislative acts have seriously weakened the FDA's regulatory capacity, permitting the manufacturers of many medical devices to rely on private, for-profit companies instead of FDA to review their application. This process, he said, has reduced the evidence required to prove safety and has allowed drug companies to promote drugs for purposes for which they were not approved.

Nader said FDA needs new leadership that will refuse to compromise public safety to accommodate industry demands. He also urged repeal of the FDA Modernization Act and other deregulatory measures that have weakened the agency.