Countywide : Foe Chides Gallegly on Abortion Voting

Democratic congressional candidate Anita Perez-Ferguson assailed Rep. Elton Gallegly’s voting record on abortion Thursday during a round-table discussion in Ventura.

Perez-Ferguson, who is challenging Gallegly (R-Simi Valley) for the 23rd Congressional District seat, joined a Ventura attorney and a physician who performs abortions in expressing indignation over this week’s U. S. Supreme Court decision that upheld some of a Pennsylvania law’s restrictions on abortion.

She also leveled pointed criticisms at her opponent, saying: “Elton Gallegly has voted against providing federal funds for abortions. He has voted against federal funding for the National Institutes of Health and all the research they’re doing there because some of it involved fetal tissue research.

“And he has committed himself to voting against a bill that would guarantee a woman’s right to abortion across the nation,” Perez-Ferguson added at the discussion with reporters.

After citing these and other votes, Perez-Ferguson said the three-term congressman holds views that “are totally outside the realm of people in the district who are for choice.”

In a brief telephone interview from Washington, Gallegly said he did support abortion in cases of rape, incest or when the pregnancy threatens the life of the mother.

But he said he differs with Perez-Ferguson on the issue of federal funding. “She supports federal funding of almost all abortions, just like she supports federal funding for almost everything else,” he said.

Gallegly also said that unlike Perez-Ferguson, he supports revising abortion laws so they mandate that minors must get parental consent before undergoing abortions.

“She does not believe a 13-, 14- or 15-year-old child should have to get parental consent for an abortion,” Gallegly said. “I think that is a terrible mistake. These children are at an age when they need the supervision and support of their parents.”

Perez-Ferguson, referring to a poll of 500 registered Ventura County voters by her staff that she said showed overwhelming support for abortion rights, vowed to work for the passage of the Freedom of Choice Act. The bill, now working its way through Congress, would make the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade ruling legalizing abortion a national law.

Abortion rights will be guaranteed, she said, only “when we replace members of Congress who vote against a woman’s right to choice with members who will vote for that right.”