ABRAMOFF NEVER BROUGHT SCHAFFER TO WATCH ANY FORCED ABORTIONS WHILE HE WAS PARASAILING IN THE MARIANAS

Bob Schaffer investigates forced abortions... by parasailing

From the very beginning of the whole Tom DeLay-Jack Abramoff Marianas scandal, the part that never made sense to me is how the hypocrites of the religionist right never got angry about the forced abortions. I mean we always see them overlooking things like slavery-- but forced abortions perpetrated by Republican leaders...? And it wasn't only Tom DeLay and John Doolittle who were complicit in this. Fortunately, the Colorado campaign for the open U.S. Senate seat has shined a spotlight on the scandal again because one of the candidates, Republican Bob Schaffer, was a congressman in 1999 and went on one of the Abramoff-sponsored junkets to the Marianas (ostensibly to "investigate," although apparently to parasail and enjoy the water sports with his wife). He then came back to DC and reported that the Northern Marianas were a paradise and we should import their labor laws here to the mainland.

Finally, according to this morning's Denver Post, one of the anti-choice groups has gotten its dander up. Although Schaffer points out that they never scheduled a chance for him to view a forced abortion while he was... investigating, "Colorado Right to Life accused Schaffer of closing his eyes to reports from Chinese workers on the islands about forced abortions."

"The pro-life movement will no longer give a pass to candidates like Bob Schaffer who look the other way when Chinese women are forced to abort their children," said Steve Curtis, spokesman for the group and former chairman of the Colorado Republican Party.

"At best Schaffer was negligent investigating coerced abortion in the Mariana Islands," he said. "Worse, he has voted for permanent normal trade relations with China, rewarding the regime that forces women to abort their children."

Schaffer, who visited the Marianas in 1999 while in Congress, said allegations of forced abortions were among the things he looked into on that trip.

"I absolutely did not look the other way on this issue," Schaffer said, saying he interviewed "dozens" of workers and met with local religious leaders about the topic.

A 1998 report by the U.S. Office of Insular Affairs found squalid living conditions for foreign workers in the Marianas.

A statement given to investigators from a Chinese woman showed what happened to workers who got pregnant.
"According to Miss Y, if the company found out a worker became pregnant, they would fire her and return her to China where she would be 'forced to have an abortion.' Knowing this, workers who became pregnant either tried to self abort or find someone in Saipan to perform the abortion. Some women ran away and hid so they didn't have to have an abortion."

"I found the reports credible," Schaffer said. "I've not seen them refuted."

Schaffer said during his visit he tried to determine how often abortions occurred.

"In five days, I did not observe a forced abortion or meet anybody who had any knowledge of them," he said, adding that no subsequent examples were ever brought to him.

Maybe the poor women didn't have the money to join the parasailing expeditions. Schaffer returned from the Marianas and said everyone was happy and smiling. The man is unfit for public office. In fact, he should be forced to disgorge the bribes he took from Abramoff for painting the rosy picture and misleading his colleagues and his constituents. Bob Schaffer is a disgrace.