THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, October 7, 1994 TAG: 9410070645
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A12 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: ARLINGTON LENGTH: Short : 50 lines
Four of the Senate's five female Democrats helped push abortion into the arena in Virginia's fractious Senate race Thursday and took some of the most bitter partisan swipes yet at Republican Oliver L. North.
Sen. Charles S. Robb is a faithful champion of abortion rights, said Sen. Barbara Boxer of California.
``There are three positions in this race, and each candidate has one,'' Boxer said. ``We've got Chuck Robb, the pro-choice candidate; Oliver North, the anti-choice candidate; and Marshall Coleman, the multiple choice candidate.''
Coleman, an independent, once held a hardline anti-abortion stance. He now says he is personally opposed to abortion but does not believe government ought to interfere in the issue.
Boxer went on to rebuke North for his role in Iran-Contra.
Sen. Carol Moseley-Braun of Illinois delivered an emotional appeal to reject the division she said North represents.
``I look at what's happening in Virginia, and it is not just a race between Chuck Robb and Oliver North,'' she said. ``It is a race between truth and a lie, a race between light and the darkness, between the future and the past,'' she said.
Until this week, abortion took a back seat to character, crime and taxes as the issues most discussed by the candidates.
An exchange between North and high school students on Monday marked the issue's real debut in the race, when North contrasted his pro-life position with Robb's stance. North said Robb supports abortion into the ninth month of pregnancy, an assertion Robb denied later that day.
On Thursday, the National Right to Life Committee weighed in, claiming Robb's support for a proposed abortion rights law amounts to support for late-term abortions.
The Freedom of Choice Act, which never became law, does not explicitly bar such abortions, said Carol Long, the anti-abortion group's political director. Robb was a co-sponsor of the bill last year.
``I have never been pro-abortion, but I am pro-choice,'' Robb said Thursday, adding that he opposes ninth-month abortions.
KEYWORDS: U.S. SENATE RACE VIRGINIA CANDIDATES
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