NARAL-CT Head Backs Ned Lamont

I remember back when we were furiously faxing people just prior to the Alito cloture vote and I called NARAL to ask if they’d be pulling their endorsement for Lincoln Chafee after he announced he’d be voting for cloture on Strip Search Sammy. I was told that they didn’t really think the vote was "significant" and didn’t count cloture votes in their endorsement scorecards.

I felt like I’d been stabbed in the gut.  Like the organization I’d believed in, supported, defended against all comers and in which I truly placed my trust to defend choice in this country had become something I did not recognize.  When they came out the next day and told their membership to thank both Lieberman and Chafee for their votes on Alito (both voted for cloture but "no" on the meaningless floor vote) the war was on.  

So far the national NARAL organization (under the sway of chief Cocktail Weenie Nancy Keenan) has not endorsed anyone in the Connecticut Senatorial race, this despite the fact that Holy Joe  wants rape victims to climb up off the gurney and take a "short ride" from a publicly funded Catholic hospital if they want to get something frivolous like, say, a milkshake.  Or emergency contraception.

So I was extremely heartened to see that Carolyn Treiss, head of Connecticut NARAL, has joined the Connecticut Choice Voice organization that is endorsing Ned Lamont.  A lot of women in the Connecticut pro-choice community were mortified when they discovered that Nancy Keenan and national NARAL had been telling their membership to thank Holy Joe for blackening their eye (information that was largely promulgated by the blogs) and as a result Connecticut Choice Voice was formed.  It’s really wonderful to see Carolyn Treiss getting out in front of this and showing the kind of leadership in her state that is going to be necessary if groups like NARAL and Planned Parenthood are ever to be trusted again to be the guardians of choice once again.

We chastise them when they do wrong and so we should thank them when they do right.  You can find contact information to thank Carolyn Treiss for her courage and her leadership here.

Related posts:

1. NARAL Board Member Lincoln Chaffee Voted for Cloture on Alito
2. And the Catholic Bishops Endorse! A Special Thank-You To Planned Parenthood and NARAL
3. Will Planned Parenthood and NARAL Score the House Health Care Bill?
4. Women: Get Realistic About Your Uteruses
5. Stupak Threatens to Block Health Care over Abortion; Planned Parenthood, NARAL Take a Nap