Denver Post fact-checks McInnis radio interview on abortion

The Denver Post Wednesday afternoon took issue with some of the things GOP gubernatorial candidate Scott McInnis told social conservative radio host Jim Pfaff Monday about his congressional record on abortion and the Post’s reporting on that record.

McInis said the Post had gone through his votes and found that all of them were anti-abortion.

The Post’s Spot blog reported, however, that the Post never claimed to have gone through his voting record.

In fact, in November the Post reported that, while in Congress, McInnis “earned a reputation as a moderate and a maverick on the [abortion] issue.”

He voted against some abortion measures, supported others and once chaired the national Republicans for Choice….

The Rocky Mountain News in 1996 also called McInnis a maverick on the issue.

He long had opposed partial-birth abortions and backed parental notification. But he opted to allow for privately funded abortions at overseas U.S. military hospitals, to let federal employees choose health insurance plans to cover abortions and to preserve federal funding for family-planning programs.

In 1995, NARAL tracked 21 roll-call votes. McInnis sided with their issues seven times. In contrast, Democrat Pat Schroeder of Denver supported NARAL’s position all 21 times while Republican Joel Hefley of Colorado Springs voted against NARAL’s position every time, the Rocky reported.

On the Jim Pfaff radio show, McInnis claimed to have a zero rating by NARAL.

The Post also corrected the record to say it had never asked McInnis for his high school transcripts, as he told Pfaff and his radio listeners.

Untrue. The Post in February asked the candidate for his college and law school transcripts as part of our routine background research.

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