RIGHTWINGSPARKLE

Got this e-mail from GOP.com:

Recently, some Democrats are falsely claiming that abortions have increased during President Bush's time in office. Not true. As this recent article from FactCheck.org points out, abortions have fallen under the Bush Administration.

FactCheck debunks the claim, made most recently by Howard Dean this past Sunday, and by Sens. Hillary Clinton and John Kerry in recent statements.

The report indicates those eager to criticize President Bush picked up on a claim based on incomplete and inaccurate data:

This claim is false. It's based on an an opinion piece that used data from only 16 states. A study by the Alan Guttmacher Institute of 43 states found that abortions have actually decreased... The claim that abortions are rising again can be traced back to an opinion piece by Glen Harold Stassen, an ethics professor at Fuller Theological Seminary... Stassen's broad conclusion wasn't justified by the sketchy information he cited, however. Furthermore, a primary organization he cited specifically as a source for historical data now contradicts him, saying abortions have continued to decline since Bush took office.

The Guttmacher Institute is no fan of the Administration's policies - they were 'founded in 1968 in honor of a former president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America', and describes [their] mission as being 'to protect the reproductive choice of all women and men in the United States and throughout the world.'

But even they had to admit the Administration's policies are working. 'Had Stassen's numbers proven accurate, the Institute would have reported and widely publicized a rise in abortion rates,' said [the Institute's Leila] Darabi. 'But facts are facts.'

We urge you to set the record straight. Get the truth about the Democrats' misleading claim here.

Next, please forward this message to your friends, and contact your local talk radio shows. Let your community know that these false claims by Democrat opponents will not be tolerated.

Sincerely,

Dave RexrodeDirector of Conservative Development Republican National Committee