THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, March 13, 1996 TAG: 9603130571
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Short : 37 lines
Republican Senate candidate James C. Miller III said Tuesday that if his daughter were impregnated by a rapist, he would encourage her to have the baby.
Miller, a budget director in the Reagan administration, is challenging Sen. John W. Warner in a June 11 primary.
Miller said that he supports abortion only to save the life of the mother. In response to a reporter's question, Miller said he would tell his daughter not to have an abortion if she were raped.
``I would encourage her not to have an abortion, to keep the baby or put it up for adoption,'' Miller said during a campaign swing with conservative family activists who have endorsed his candidacy.
Among those who endorsed him was Kay Coles James, Gov. George Allen's former Health and Human Resources secretary; Walter Barbee, president of the Family Foundation, and the Rev. R. Mark Jarvis, state director of the American Family Association of Virginia.
Miller said the family vote will be key in his bid to unseat Warner.
``The rights of families are being undermined at every turn,'' he said. He cited cases in which minors were allowed to have abortions without their parents' knowledge, even when the same child couldn't get an aspirin at school without parental permission.
KEYWORDS: VIRGINIA STATE SENATE RACE CANDIDATE REPUBLICAN
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