Bauer Airs Anti-Abortion Ad, Tying Issue to Religious Freedom

Conservative activist Gary Bauer unveiled the first abortion-related commercial of the 2000 presidential campaign Tuesday. He pledged to expand “the circle of human rights and dignity” to unborn children just as lawmakers throughout history have granted new freedoms to slaves and women.

Vice President Al Gore also continued to rotate the spots in his ad campaign, part of a flurry of television commercials filling the airwaves in early voting states.

In the first of a pair of campaign ads that he will begin airing Friday in Iowa, Bauer links his opposition to abortion with his position on a variety of rights, such as religious freedom and civil rights.

“From freedom of religion to the emancipation of slaves, from civil rights to equal opportunities for women,” Bauer says, “I won’t stop until every one of God’s children is welcomed into the world and protected by the law.”

Bauer has been battling millionaire publisher Steve Forbes to establish himself as the conservative alternative to Republican front-runner George W. Bush, the Texas governor.

Abortion is a critical issue to conservative voters, and Bauer says that “for 20 years, I’ve fought to extend to unborn children the most basic of human rights.”

Bauer’s second commercial is a biographical spot filmed with the help of his mother in his childhood home in Newport, Ky. It features his youth in the blue-collar town, his support for a 16% flat tax, the right to sue HMOs and his belief that the Social Security system must be saved for both his mother’s and future generations.

“And if you ever do forget,” Betty Bauer says, wagging a finger at her son, “I’ll be here to remind you.” Bauer replies: “I know, Mom, I know.”

Both spots will air at a cost of about $130,000.

On the Democratic side, Gore has been challenging his lone rival, former Sen. Bill Bradley of New Jersey, with ads on health care policy.

His latest commercial, “Build,” says: “Medicaid is a great program, but it needs to be fixed, not starved for the money that’s needed in order to stabilize its financing. We need to build on what works and make sure we get to where every American has health insurance.”

It will be airing at a cost about $65,000 per week.