McCollum Endorsed by Gary Bauer

Social conservative Gary Bauer has endorsed Bill McCollum.

“Now more than ever, we need men and women who understand the proper, limited role of government,” said Bauer who ran in the 2000 GOP presidential primaries, outlasting a number of prominent Republicans including Elizabeth Dole, Dan Quayle and Lamar Alexander. “Bill McCollum’s leadership in support of pro-family, pro-life, and pro-free enterprise policies is greatly valued by the Campaign for Working Families and all of our members. I’m proud to stand with him in the fight for family, faith and freedom.”

If you support reproductive and gay rights then you should be concerned about Bauer's endorsement. Bauer has pushed the bogus post-abortion syndrome in a LifeNews.com op-ed.

The US Supreme Court cited post-abortion pain in its 2007 decision upholding a ban on certain types of late-term abortions. Writing for the majority, Justice Anthony Kennedy stated that it was “self-evident” and “unexceptional to conclude” that “some women” who have abortions suffer “regret,” “severe depression,” “loss of esteem,” and “other ills.”

I blogged how Justice Kennedy was duped by the work of Rebecca Porter of the anti-abortion group Operation Outcry. Porter made the bogus claim that a John Kerry campaign staffer attacked her. The web site that ran Porter's claim against the Kerry campaign was the discredited Talon News. Porter ran a letter campaign to the Supreme Court. Operation Outcry made these letters into legal affidavits. The St. Petersburg Times explained the lack of legal reasoning in the affidavits.

Each affidavit was just two or three sentences. They made no legal argument, contained no legal verbiage. Each just vented pain and guilt. "Twenty years later it still hurts, " one Florida woman wrote.

These affidavits helped sway the 5-4 Supreme Court ruling on April 18 that for the first time set limits on how abortions are performed. The testimonials were cited by Justice Anthony Kennedy in his majority opinion upholding a federal ban on a procedure that opponents call "partial birth" abortions. "The emotional and psychological pain does not go away, " Kennedy wrote.

Bauer and Porter fail to prove their claims of post-abortion syndrome. President Ronald Reagan asked U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop to find proof of postabortion syndrome. Koop told Reagan he could find no scientific evidence. Bauer has no problems promoting bogus science.

Bauer has made hysterically over-the-top statements on gay marriage.

While the administration does virtually nothing about Iran’s pursuit of weapons of mass destruction, it remains intent on the mass destruction of marriage in America. Friday White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs stated that President Obama was prepared to work with congressional liberals to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act.

I have never heard anyone link Iran's weapons program to gay marriage before. Bauer's argument may not be rationale, but it is original.

Bauer's endorsement means McCollum is going to govern in a manner that brings confort to the most extreme elements of the social conservative movement. That means McCollum will have no moral problem taking rights away from women and gays.