Packwood gets pro-choice support
By DOUG FICK
Of the Emerald
Abortion rights activists around the
country have jumped on Sen. Bob Pack
wood s campaign bandwagon, a wagon
many feel has enough momentum to
propel the incumbent senator into a third
term on Capitol Hill
Packwood, R-Ore., supports abortion
and says about $500,000 of the $750,000
now in his re-election campaign coffers
has been contributed by abortion rights
supporters, who call themselves pro
choice. The donations started rolling in
after a letter of support from Gloria
Steinem, editor of Ms. magazine, was
sent to selected individuals on the
magazine s mailing list and members of
the National Abortion Rights League,
Packwood says.
Many of the contributors to Pack
wood’s campaign are women and 24 of
the 25 county chairers at recent Pack
wood campaign conference in Wilson
ville were women.
'Women play a prominent part in my
election campaign,” Packwood says.
Anti-abortion groups have targeted
Packwood as one of 12 Congressional
incumbents to beat in the 1980 elections.
That targeting inspired Packwood to
ask Steinem to send the letter, which
outlines his stance on women’s issues
and the plans of anti-abortion groups to
defeat him in 1980. Packwood says he
spent $5,000 on mailing costs and for the
use of Ms. magazine's mailing list, but
that Steinem, a long-time friend and
supporter, wasn’t paid for writing the
letter.
Many of the women chairers at the
campaign conference also voiced their
support for Packwood’s stance on
women’s issues and expressed indigna
tion at the anti-abortion groups’ efforts to
unseat the incumbent senator.
Oregon Sen. Bob Packwood's campaign is getting a lot of help this year from a single
issue. Pro-choice advocates — those who advocate abortion rights for women — have
joined Packwood's parade, prompted by a letter from feminist Gloria Steinmem.
Signe Pribnow, the Marion County
campaign chairer, says it was Pack
wood’s stand on abortion that drew her
to his re-election campaign.
"Many of the people working in this
campaign will be in support of his stand
on women’s rights,” Pribnow says. “If we
don’t get out and support pro-choice
candidates they might pass an anti
abortion bill.”
Pribnow says she received the Stein
em letter and was "outraged” by the
anti-abortion groups’ plan to defeat the
12 Congress members cited as Con
gress’ strongest abortion supporters.
Pribnow says that as a two-term, ranking
Republican and long-time abortion
rights supporter, Packwood carries clout
on women’s rights issues and is near the
top of the right-to-lifers’ 1980 election hit
list.
She blames the anti-abortion ad
vocates for waging a single-issue cam
paign against Packwood.
“I don’t like single-issue politics, and I
resent fighting a single-issue attack,”
says Pribnow, who supports Packwood’s
stands on “almost everything.” She cites
the 1978 defeat of Dick Clark, an ex
senator from Iowa, as an example of the
political strength of Right-To-Life
groups Clark’s support of abortion cost
him the single-issue election.
Pribnow is a Democrat, but says she
would not support a pro-abortion
Democrat in the 1980 Senate race,
because Packwood's seniority and vot
ing record give him more political clout
than any freshman senator would have.
"I am supporting the senator because
of his long record with abortion rights,”
says Mary Heffernan, staff director of the
National Abortion Rights League’s
Oregon headquarters. “If Sen. Pack
wood loses in this election, it is very likely
that a national anti-abortion amendment
will be passed."
But Heffernan, who was wearing a
“Proudly for Packwood” tag, says she
disagrees with Packwood’s stand on
many issues.
"Single issue (politics) in general I'm
opposed to,” she says. "I’m not happy
being a single-issue person. I am a sin
gle-issue person in this case.”
Heffernan says the advantages of
Packwood's influence in the fight over
abortion outweigh the disadvantages of
his views on other issues. Abortion rights
are being cut back in Congress through
the use of anti-abortion riders on
appropriations bills, she says, adding
that the next step in the war against
abortion will be the introduction of na
tional legislation totally outlawing abor
tion.
Packwood is one of few senators with
enough power to stop such legislation,
she says.
“This is the first election we’ve seen
people identify women’s rights as a
favorable issue,” says Jack Faust, Pack
wood’s campaign manager. Faust says
Packwood has supported women’s
rights issues since 1960, long before
they were politically popular.
The influx of money and effort from
pro-choice sources has not made the
Packwood campaign a single-issue ef
fort, he says, pointing to the economy,
energy, timber management and
defense spending as some of the many
other issues Packwood will stress during
the 1980 race.
Rosalie. Huss, Packwood’s sole
Republican challenger, has criticized
Packwood for his support of abortion,
which she calls “baby killing.”
Packwood says he welcomes the
money and support of the abortion rights
supporters, but says he is not running a
single-issue campaign.
“I'm not going to campaign on the
issue of — ‘Elect me, I’m pro-choice.’ ’’
11
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