Was Governor Barbour Under Pressure From Pfizer?

RH Reality Check's Robin Marty wrote an article regarding Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour's hesitance to vote yes on Initiative 26, the 'Personhood Initiative'.  While Governor Barbour did eventually vote yes on the initiative, to my knowledge, he has not completely embraced it.  This is disappointing, but not completely disheartening. 

Robin states "Now, Prop 26 supporters are accusing Barbour of being wooed by money, not conscience".  I'm sure a lot did.  It crossed my mind as well.  She cites HuffPo in the article, which states:

The Personhood USA campaign retaliated on Thursday by pointing out that Barbour took campaign contributions from Monsanto and Pfizer -- pharmaceutical companies that manufacture the abortion pill.

"We thought it was really strange that he would oppose this measure, since we have the support of nearly every other politician in the state, both Democrat and Republican. So we did a little digging," Jennifer Mason, spokesperson for Personhood USA, told HuffPost. "We discovered that he has received campaign contributions from the makers of the abortion pill as recently as 2007."

Pfizer makes Misoprostol tablets, one of the two pills taken to end early pregnancy, which would be banned if Mississippi voters pass the personhood amendment at the ballots next week. According to a campaign contributions database, Pfizer contributed $7,000 to Barbour's reelection campaign in 2006 and Monsanto, Pfizer's parent company, contributed $1,000.

Barbour's office did not immediately respond to calls for comment.

Do I find it unacceptable that Governor Barbour accepted money from the makers of abortion pills?  No, I don't.  As Robin stated:

Of course, pretty much every politician with any sort of national standing, especially a Republican, has probably received donations from Pfizer.

She's right.  Not necessarily about 'especially a Republican' though, since the tables turned when democrats took control of Congress.

Pharmaceutical companies upped their donations to Democrats by $2.9 million, while reducing their donations to the GOP by $3.9 million. 

But pharmaceutical companies do contribute to politicians all the time.  And a lot of other industries do so as well. 

In my opinion, I doubt if Governor Barbour's hesitance had anything to do with campaign contributions from Pfizer, considering he's not up for re-election due to term limits.  More likely, he was a victim of the scare tactics being used by Planned Parenthood to thwart Initiative 26's passing.  Things like birth control being banned, women with ectopic pregnancies being refused treatment, and so on. All lies, all initiated by Planned Parenthood. 

Finally, I just got a link for the audio of a robocall sponsored by YesOn26 and PersonhoodUSA.  And you know what? Governor Barbour STILL sounds unsure of when life begins, but at least he voted yes!