Karen Handel snaps back at pro-lifers

GOP gubernatorial candidate Karen Handel, if you haven’t already heard, is embroiled in a dust-up with Georgia Right to Life, the anti-abortion group that earlier this year pushed a heinous piece of state legislation that would have criminalized “coerced abortions,” whatever those are.

Jim Galloway outlined the brouhaha in detail, but here’s a snapshot: Dan Becker, GRTL’s executive director, said Handel’s take on abortion — she thinks women whose pregnancies are life-threatening or the product of rape or incest should still have the option — doesn’t jibe with the group’s definition of “pro life.” Handel also opposes a ban on in-vitro fertilization, which GRTL championed last year. For these reasons, the group gave endorsements to all GOP candidates but the former secretary of state and Fulton County chairwoman.

Handel responded with a blistering press statement saying she’s dismayed and disappointed by Becker’s comments. In the process, she referenced her own efforts to become a mother and trotted out an endorsement from a former GRTL honcho. She also wondered whether her opponents, who passed GRTL’s muster by affirming that life begins at conception and ends at natural death, are in favor of the death penalty, which she supports.