Red to Blue Campaign Colors Illinois House Race

By Sharon Johnson

WeNews senior correspondent

Friday, October 15, 2010

Planned Parenthood has endorsed Democrat Dan Seals in the U.S. congressional race for the 10th District of Illinois, one of the few races in the country where longtime GOP dominance could give way.

Dan Seals (WOMENSENEWS)--Planned Parenthood, the country's leading provider of reproductive health services, is targeting the 10th District of Illinois as one of the most important congressional races in the country for reproductive rights.

The district, in President Barack Obama's political stomping ground, is considered strategically important for Democrats, the party with stronger support for reproductive rights.

The contest between Democrat Dan Seals and Republican Robert Dold is one of the few where the besieged majority party in Congress could break longtime Republican control. The GOP incumbent Mark Kirk is vying for the Senate seat once held by Obama. The last time a Democrat represented the district was in 1975 when Abner Mikva, a friend and advisor to Obama, held the seat.

With the district in this kind of spotlight, Seals' endorsement by both Planned Parenthood and NARAL Pro-Choice America spotlights what it takes for a candidate to win pro-choice favor and censure.

Republican nominee Dold says he is pro-choice, but NARAL Pro-Choice America and Planned Parenthood disagree.

One demerit: Dold's support for laws that require health authorities to notify parents before performing abortions on underage women. Putting a parent between a woman and her physician is dangerous, the groups say, because it can lead to beatings or worse forms of reprisal for a secret pregnancy.

Another big demerit: Dold's opposition to federal assistance for abortion. The right to choose is meaningless, they argue, without the means to choose.

Medicaid Financing Controversial

Medicaid financing has been an issue in Illinois since 1976 when Republican Rep. Henry Hyde championed an annual rider to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' budget that blocks federal funds from covering abortion. The rider was the first effort by anti-choice groups to limit Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion.

In 2009, there were 46,077 abortions in Illinois, a decrease of 25,249 from a high point set in 1977 when the Hyde Amendment took effect.

Dold also weakened his pro-choice credentials by accepting a "recommendation" from the Illinois Federation for Right to Life in the February primary for his support of some abortion restrictions. The anti-choice group, however, withheld the outright endorsement it gave to 16 congressional candidates during that primary.

A 41-year-old lawyer who owns the oldest pest-exterminating company in the United States, Dold contends that his positions are consistent with those of Kirk, the outgoing seat-holder. Kirk received a 100 percent pro-choice rating from NARAL Pro-Choice America during his five terms.

Kirk, however, incurred the group's ire in 2009 when he voted for the Stupak Pitts amendment, which would have banned all coverage of abortion in insurance plans offered by the health insurance exchanges created as part of the health care overhaul.

Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, characterized Kirk's vote as "political calculation that betrayed his proposed standards of moderation and centrism."

Seals, a 39-year-old business consultant, challenged Kirk in 2006 and 2008 but lost both elections by slim margins.

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