John Bel Edwards wants Louisiana pro-lifers to believe he's one of them.  But in reality, he’s a typical corrupt politician saying whatever it takes to get elected.  While Mr. Edwards has voted in favor of marginal and less significant pro-life reforms, digging a little deeper exposes the truth: he is no friend to the cause of protecting innocent unborn babies.

In 2006, Mr. Edwards summarized his view of abortion as “the freedom of choice” in answering OnTheIssues.org’s State Congressional National Political Awareness Test – an unconscionable answer to any serious pro-lifer.

And beyond his voting record, Mr. Edwards has a history of weakening the language of legislation to make it more abortion-friendly.

During the 2014 Hobby Lobby Supreme Court battle, where President Obama’s signature health care law, popularly called “Obamacare,” was forcing private Christian companies and family businesses to subsidize abortifacient drugs, states like Louisiana tried to tighten their religious liberty protections to prevent people of religious conviction from facing similar oppression in the future.  But John Bel Edwards authored an amendment to weaken the First Amendment rights of small family businesses in Louisiana.  As Louisiana Right to Life Federation puts it, “Rep. Edwards' amendment prevented employees of private institutions from having their conscience rights protected when it came to refusing to engage in actions such as abortion.”

Mr. Edwards is also a staunch supporter of Obamacare, going so far as to author a bill to expand Obamacare in Louisiana.  Why would a “pro-lifer” vote to expand a program into his state that is funneling millions of dollars nationwide to the nation’s leading abortion provider, Planned Parenthood?  Planned Parenthood is responsible for one third of abortions in the United States every year (clocking in at over 327,000 abortions last year alone) yet still receives $500 million each year from taxpayers nationwide, much of that coming from Obamacare, which has declared the abortion giant a “community health center.”  Any vote to expand Obamacare is a vote for Obamacare’s taxpayer funding for abortion providers and its pro-abortion mandates.

John Bel Edwards is the classic definition of a wolf in sheep’s clothing – a typical pro-choice liberal masquerading as a pro-lifer.  His claim that the destruction of innocent unborn babies is a matter of “choice,” his record of crippling attempts to protect people of religious conviction from being forced to comply with pro-abortion mandates, and his desire to expand programs that funnel taxpayer dollars to Planned Parenthood through Obamacare suggest that as governor he’d do nothing to stand up for the sanctity of life in Louisiana.

Senator David Vitter, on the other hand, has a record of cosponsoring legislation to define human life as beginning at the moment of conception; has voted 100% of the time against taxpayer funding for abortion and abortion providers; voted to restrict abortion on babies at 5 months of pregnancy, when they are capable of feeling pain; and has taken a leading role in the fight to repeal Obamacare and all of its taxpayer funding for abortion providers and pro-abortion mandates.

The choice for governor in the great state of Louisiana could not be clearer.

Mark Elsasser is a native of Louisiana and editor in chief at Conservative-Force.com.