Abortion

Was Barbour Paid Off By The “Abortion Industry?”

Now that Barbour has questioned Mississippi's Initiative 26, anti-choice activists are saying he took money from "abortion pill" makers.

Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour. Image Source

Anti-choice activists who support the egg-as-person movement in Mississippi have a new target — Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour.  Yesterday, the Republican made news saying he was “concerned” with Initiative 26, which would grant legal rights to fertilized eggs.  Now, Prop 26 supporters are accusing Barbour of being wooed by money, not conscience.

Via Huffington Post:

Haley Barbour, the conservative, pro-life governor of Mississippi, surprised and infuriated supporters of the state’s anti-abortion “personhood” initiative on Wednesday when he told MSNBC’s Chuck Todd that he might be voting against it. The Personhood USA campaign retaliated on Thursday by pointing out that Barbour took campaign contributions from Monsanto and Pfizer — pharmaceutical companies that manufacture the abortion pill.

“We thought it was really strange that he would oppose this measure, since we have the support of nearly every other politician in the state, both Democrat and Republican. So we did a little digging,” Jennifer Mason, spokesperson for Personhood USA, told HuffPost. “We discovered that he has received campaign contributions from the makers of the abortion pill as recently as 2007.”

Pfizer makes Misoprostol tablets, one of the two pills taken to end early pregnancy, which would be banned if Mississippi voters pass the personhood amendment at the ballots next week. According to a campaign contributions database, Pfizer contributed $7,000 to Barbour’s reelection campaign in 2006 and Monsanto, Pfizer’s parent company, contributed $1,000.

Barbour’s office did not immediately respond to calls for comment.

Of course, pretty much every politician with any sort of national standing, especially a Republican, has probably received donations from Pfizer.  After all, the drug company is highly invested in making sure that it has advocates in federal and state legislatures who will fight against health care reform, drug price controls, and the like.

But that’s not going to stop the anti-choice community from making their accusations.