It's the story no one will touch:
Did George W. Bush arrange an abortion for a girlfriend he got pregnant in 1970?
We may never know, thanks to the press's reluctance to deal with anything controversial involving a Republican candidate for president this close to election day.
The tale of the alleged abortion is an amazing one and would certainly not be known in the Bay Area if not for the efforts of my favorite KGO talk-radio host, Bernie Ward.
Ward spent most of last week talking about it in his 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. time slot. But outside of a mention Friday by the Chronicle's Matier and Ross, and an earlier oblique reference in a Milwaukee Journal column, the print media hasn't touched the story, judging by a Nexis search.
The abortion question was first raised by Larry Flynt, publisher of Hustler magazine and a slew of other raunchy rags, each one filthier than the one before.
Flynt is famous as a porn publisher, as a shooting victim (he's confined to a wheelchair), as a defender of First Amendment rights, as the object of the movie, "The People vs. Larry Flynt," and as the man who exposed the sexual indiscretions of a number of hypocritical Republicans during the Clinton impeachment debacle.
On Oct. 20, Flynt was a guest on CNN's "Crossfire." During the course of the program, he said George W. had arranged for an abortion of a girlfriend in 1970. Nobody followed up on his allegation, and no more was said about it.
Ward got wind of Flynt's allegation. To learn more about it, he went to the CNN Web site to read the transcript of the program and, lo and behold, the transcript of that one program was missing! It later showed up on the Net with the reference to the alleged abortion deleted.
Ward wanted to know more, so he had Flynt as a guest on his show last Tuesday.
During that conversation, Flynt repeated his allegation that a girlfriend of Bush had had an abortion in 1970. That was before Roe v. Wade, thus during a time when most abortions were illegal in the United States.
Flynt said that his investigators have spent eight months checking out Bush's past. During that time, they were able to learn about Bush's affair, about the pregnancy and about the abortion.
But, Flynt, more cautious than you might expect of a man like him, said he is reluctant to provide specific information because the woman who allegedly had the abortion refuses to talk about it. Said Flynt: "The only thing we could not have which we needed to break the story was the girl to come out, and she would not come out."
Because of that, Flynt said, he's been agitating the mainstream press to ask Bush about the abortion. But he's not getting any takers.
However, in defense of the press, it should be noted that George W. Bush has given up talking with the press. With his profound and well-earned ability to say dumb things, he's decided the best course is to say nothing.
How much proof does Flynt have? After the CNN broadcast, he was interviewed in a CNN chat room. As reported on bushwatch.com, a virulent anti-Bush Web site, here's what Flynt said in the chat room:
"When I said that we had the proof, I am referring to knowing who the girl was, knowing who the doctor was that performed the abortion, evidence from girlfriends of hers at the time who knew about the romance and the subsequent abortion.
"The young lady does not want to go public, and, without her willingness, we don't feel that we're on solid enough legal ground to go with the story, because, should she say it never happened, then we've got a potential libel suit."
Later in the chat room, Flynt added: "I'd just like the national media to ask him if abortion is okay for him and his family but not for the rest of America. We're not looking at it as a big issue. We're looking at it as a situation of people not being told the truth. I think the American people have a right to know everything there is to know about someone running for president."
People who follow the news know that Larry Flynt, no matter what you think of him, has a perfect record when it comes to exposing the sexual foibles of hypocritical office-holders. He's never been wrong. |
