August 18, 2008
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from the Washington Post. so that sounds pretty reliable.
i usually ignore everything like this. with the “p”word. but yeah.
OBAMA’S ABORTION EXTREMISM
By Michael GersonWednesday, April 2, 2008;
Page A1…(i cut out stuff…it was long.)
“But by Casey’s father’s standard of social justice for the unborn, Obama is badly lacking.
Obama has not made abortion rights the shouted refrain of his
campaign, as other Democrats have done. He seems to realize that
pro-choice enthusiasm is inconsistent with a reputation for
post-partisanship.But Obama’s record on abortion is extreme. He opposed the ban on
partial-birth abortion — a practice a fellow Democrat, the late Daniel
Patrick Moynihan, once called “too close to infanticide.” Obama
strongly criticized the Supreme Court decision upholding the
partial-birth ban. In the Illinois
state Senate, he opposed a bill similar to the Born-Alive Infants
Protection Act, which prevents the killing of infants mistakenly left
alive by abortion. And now Obama has oddly claimed that he would not
want his daughters to be “punished with a baby” because of a crisis
pregnancy — hardly a welcoming attitude toward new life.or decades, most Democrats and many Republicans have
hoped the political debate on abortion would simply go away. But it is
the issue that does not die. Recent polls have shown that young people
are more
likely than their elders to support abortion restrictions. Few
Americans oppose abortion under every circumstance, but a majority
oppose most of the abortions that actually take place — generally
supporting the procedure only in the case of rape or incest, or to save
the life of the mother.Perhaps this is a revolt against a culture of disposability. Perhaps
it reflects the continuing revolution of ultrasound technology — what
might be called the “Juno” effect. In the delightful movie by that
name, the protagonist, a pregnant teen seeking an abortion, is
confronted by a classmate who informs her that the unborn child already
has fingernails — which causes second thoughts. A worthless part of
its mother’s body — a clump of protoplasmic rubbish — doesn’t have
fingernails.Abortion is an unavoidable moral issue. It also has broader
political significance. Democrats of a past generation — the
generation of Hubert Humphrey and Martin Luther King Jr. — spoke about building a beloved community that cared especially for the elderly, the weak, the disadvantaged and the young.The advance of pro-choice policies imported a different ideology into
the Democratic Party — the absolute triumph of individualism. The
rights and choices of adults have become paramount, even at the expense
of other, voiceless members of the community.These trends reached their logical culmination during a
congressional debate on partial-birth abortion in 1999. When Democratic
Sen. Barbara Boxer was pressed to affirm that she opposed the medical killing of children after
birth, she refused to commit, saying that children deserve legal
protection only “when you bring your baby home.” It was unclear whether
this included the car trip.Having endorsed partial-birth abortion, Obama has little room to
maneuver on the broader issue. But he does have some. He could take the
wise counsel of evangelical Democrats such as Amy Sullivan and come out
strongly for policies that would reduce the number of abortions –
support for pregnant women, abstinence education, the responsible
promotion of birth control. An organization called Democrats for Life
has proposed the creation of a “95-10 Initiative” in which states and
the federal government would work toward the reduction of abortion
rates by 95 percent within 10 years. That would be a unifying national
goal.http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/01/AR2008040102197.html
Is ABORTION enough of an issue to decide who you vote for/do not vote for?
(that is a question. honestly.)
