NARAL's anti-Roberts ad called 'unfair'

WASHINGTON, Aug. 11 (UPI) -- A former Clinton administration solicitor general termed "unfair" an ad by an abortion rights group against the U.S. Supreme Court nomination of John Roberts.

NARAL Pro-Choice America has begun running an ad in which it claims Roberts sides with "violent fringe groups and a convicted clinic bomber."

Roberts, as deputy solicitor general, filed a friend of the court brief in a case about abortion clinic protests saying an anti-Ku Klux Klan law should not be used against the groups. The government did not support the activities of violent protesters, Roberts said, but that KKK law was not applicable.

NARAL has ignored those statements in its ad and stands by its message, ABC News reported.

Walter Dellinger III, solicitor general under President Clinton, told ABC, "I'm reluctant to criticize any organization that has done and continues to do as much for the important protection of women's reproductive rights as NARAL does, but I think this ad is unfair."

Dellinger said, "There's nothing in the argument or the briefs that Judge Roberts presented to the Supreme Court on behalf of the United States that could remotely be characterized as excusing violence. That's just not fair."

The White House and the chairman of the Republican National Committee earlier in the week said the ad was slanderous.