The BIG lie...

"[The potential Supreme Court appointment of an extremist] means a minimum of 5,000 women a year will die. So all options are on the table. ... [Sandra Day O'Connor] has been a powerful voice for moderation. This is a philosophy her successor should embrace. ... We cannot go back to the dark days. Roe must remain the law of the land." --Sen. Barbara Boxer, citing a phony statistic (see below) while ignoring the very real statistic of more than 40 million unborn babies killed since 1973, when "moderation" became the "law of the land."

For the record, the current Supreme Court vote count regarding the central pro-abortion decision Roe v. Wade stands at 6-3 (including O'Connor). This means that even should President Bush select a nominee opposed to that flawed ruling, the matter will not be reversed. Dr. Bernard Nathanson, who co-founded the National Abortion Rights Action League, but has now expressed regret for his years of abortion activism, is the best expert source on the accuracy of that "5,000 women a year will die" figure -- it's made up.

Dr. Nathanson notes that the number comes from 1972 testimony before the Supreme Court about annual female deaths from illegal abortions, confessing, "We spoke of 5,000 to 10,000 deaths a year. I confess that I knew the figures were totally false...[but] it was a useful figure, widely accepted, so why go out of our way to correct it with honest statistics?" (Emphasis added.)