Michelle and Barack Obama
Michelle Obama wrote in a 2004 fund-raising letter that the federal ban on partial-birth abortions “is clearly unconstitutional” and “a flawed law.”
Even though this barbaric procedure involves delivering the head of a fully-developed infant in the second or third trimester, piercing the baby’s skull, and sucking her brains out, Barack Obama’s wife describes it as “legitimate” medicine. She wrote further that,
“The fact remains, with no provision to protect the heath of the mother, this ban on a legitimate medical procedure is clearly unconstitutional and must be overturned.”
She went on to say that the Bush administration should not encourage the abortion practitioners who sued to reverse the ban to drop their lawsuit to make it unconstitutional. Obama told prospective donors that they could “count on” Barack to “keep the Bush team from appointing the Supreme Court justice that will vote against Roe v. Wade.”
I can only conclude that if elected president, Barack Obama and the First Lady would allow the horror of Partial Birth Abortion to continue in the USA. The Obama’s would support late-term, tax-funded abortion on demand, for any reason, at any time, and for minors, without parental consent.
Sorry, I just can’t accept that.
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
If only there was a person worthy of public office! When you get right down to it, issues like abortion are so commonplace these days that people don’t really know what is actually happening. I can’t argue with you that abortion procedures are almost across the board horrific. We kick and scream about factory farms, yet we brutalize unborn babies. I don’t think, however, that you can just throw out the arguments people make when it comes to saving mother’s lives. If I had to choose between saving the life of my wife and saving the life of my baby, I really don’t know what I would do. How could anyone?
I would be extremely interested to see you do a series of posts on the presidential candidates. I’d like to see you post on all of the positive things Obama stands for in your mind. You would do the same in a post about McCain. Contrast those posts then in another post about what you think are the more negative elements about each of them. It’s a challenge, but I think you are more than up to it.
Taylor,
The problem with the “health of the mother” argument is that it is a catch-all that is used to justify abortion in virtually any circumstance. For instance, about 6 or 7 years ago, a Chicago area nurse named Jill Stanek discovered a dying baby that had been left to die in her maternity ward’s linen closet (Christ Hospital). Needless to say, she was horrified that this was happening. As she began to investigate the circumstances of this horror, she discovered that the mother of the baby had found out that her baby was mentally handicapped, shortly before the baby’s birth. Apparently she talked with her doctor about her options and it was determined that they could terminate the pregnancy on the basis that the mother’s mental health would have been greatly disturbed by the tragedy of taking care of a mentally handicapped child. So they performed a partial birth abortion on the full term child, but the child survived this procedure. So the mortally wounded and full term child was taken to the maternity ward’s linen closet and left to die.
As nurse Jill Stanek began to research this issue, she found that this is a routine practiced all over the country. The health of the mother includes “mental anguish” over the reality of having to raise a child who has special needs.
That is why the “health of the mother” argument simply doesn’t work, as currently constituted and applied.
You can additionally find hundreds of testimonies of children and mothers who rejected the advice of a doctor (that a mother’s life was at risk) and the pregnancy actually turned out perfectly fine. In today’s litigious society, some doctors have an “itchy trigger finger” and are prone to advise abortion even when actual risk to the mother is remote at best.
Derek,
Interesting that you raised the Jill Stanek reference. It was then State Senator Barack Obama who said about this particular Christ Hospital case…
The Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights calls Obama’s vote against the Born Alive Infant Protection Act (BAIPA) that sought to protect these abortion-surviving newborns, “a Hitlerian decision.” A writer in The Jerusalem Post asks, “how doctrinaire must one be to defend actual infanticide? …what in the life-affirming Judeo-Christian value system could possibly give license to kill live babies?”
I agree with these assessments of the Obama’s position. It is incompatible with the historic biblical understanding of the sanctity of human life that is uniquely created in the image of God, and there is no room for anyone calling themselves “Christian” to hold to such a view.
My conscience does not allow me to support or vote for a person who claims to be a “Christian” and who also holds to such a low view of human life. Like I said… I just can’t go there.
Randy (and Taylor),
This article gets into even further depth on the events that unfolded after Jill Stanek discovered this baby left to die in the maternity ward:
http://www.citizenlink.org/content/A000007034.cfm
This article explains how and why Obama can not feign ignorance (though he has consistently tried to do so) in regards to partial birth abortion - or infanticide, for that matter - and to this practice. Furthermore, even though he has experienced the miracle of childbirth side by side with his wife and beautiful children, he knows that this continues to happen hospitals across our nation to this day. For him to:
a) Have knowledge of this
b) Have been in a capacity to halt or oppose this practice
c) Hide behind rhetorical obfuscations and technicalities
… is utterly shameful. If our leaders cannot be trusted to defend the weakest among us, they simply cannot be trusted in any other area of public trust.
Out of the comments posted so far, I have to say that Derek’s quote has been my favorite…
“If our leaders cannot be trusted to defend the weakest among us, they simply cannot be trusted in any other area of public trust.”
I COMPLETELY agree with this. The issue I have is that the weakest among us does not have to be based on age. I, like most people, naturally have a bias towards helping the innocent children who are not capable of taking care of themselves. However, the more time I spend interacting with various people in this world, the more I notice that there is not some magical switch that goes off in your brain as soon as you hit 18, where you become a self-sustaining adult. There are plenty of ‘children’ in their middle and even late stages of life. The environment an individual grows up in has dramatic effects on that person’s psychology, judgment, and definition of right and wrong.
I feel it is safe to say, for the sake of this conversation, that the “intelligent” pro-choice crowd is not pro-death/abortion. Pro-choice simply means that you believe the mother should have the choice, and that society should not be forced to make that decision. While I do understand that many people with the pro-life perspective believe aborting a baby is the same as killing a full grown person (unjustly), our society has not defined it as such. Therefor, it is hard to change society based on force if they do not agree on the definition.
Back to politics and our leaders defending the weakest among us…given the number of children in America from age 0 to 99, I don’t think McCain does it for me. I believe most of these social issues that relate to violence, drug use without moderation, and even abortion all come back to better education. I would trust Obama over McCain when it comes to helping people who can’t take care of themselves.
In the end, for me personally abortion isn’t at the top of my issue list. For example, I would vote for Ron Paul over Obama, then steal 10 people’s identities and vote for him 10 more times if he had a chance… and he is pro-life. I don’t like the media’s obsession with specifically abortion and gay marriage/rights, I feel they help fuel the left and right extremists, instead of coming up with progressive, moderate solutions together. A solution isn’t going to happen over night with the flip of a legal switch.
P.S. Ron Paul for the win: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66jpPCIzza8. Especially his answer to 2:24, good man, good perspective. Happy to admit when a question doesn’t have an easy answer. One more piece of semi-related food for thought…. the “digg.com” crowd which is very liberal is known for their major support for Ron Paul. I think this is interesting, and gives me hope about our new generations and how they vote.
Kyle raises some good and valid points. Because one struggles with the position of Barack Obama on “pro-life” or “pro-choice” issues does not mean that one automatically thinks John McCain is the best alternative. We live in an imperfect world, and the political process is a part of that imperfection. Still, I have yet to see a better political process at work in the world. If you find one - let me know. There have been very few elections in my lifetime thus far where I did not experience at least some level of choosing between the “lesser of evils.” I think it is harder for the younger generations (who are typically much more idealistic) to accept this reality. I think one tends to grow to accept this situation, and to be more more pragmatic with age.
Ironically, it was Jesus himself who cared the most for the weakest among us. He had a special place for children, the poor and outcast, the suffering and the disenfranchised. Because of this, you would think that of all people, conservative, evangelical Christians who talk about knowing and following Jesus in very personal terms, would be the most concerned about “EVERYONE” who suffers. There ARE more suffering people of all ages than the ones who are unborn and aborted. Yet, that does not give us cause to ignore the unborn. It simply places a bigger burden on all who claim Christ as their leader, to follow the example and teachings of that leader. It means showing mercy on ALL those who suffer and working for the protection of ALL those at risk from poverty, sickness, oppression… just as much as the work to protect the unborn from the abortionist, or pregnant women from the misguided advice of so called “abortion counselors” such as Planned Parenthood.
The “pro-life” movement needs to stop the shrillness, and the focus on single issues, and get down to business addressing abortion from more than just the political perspective. We need to be adopting, we need to be putting our money, time and efforts into alternatives, and demonstrating the healing power of the christian community in helping women through these difficult times. That is why I support Caris, Breakthrough Urban Ministries, Sunshine Gospel Ministries and and other ministries like them… who are making a difference in the lives of women, children and other suffering individuals facing these tough situations. That is why I call as many fellow Christians as I can to greater consistency in their walk with Christ, demonstrating His love and mercy toward all those who are weak and oppressed and in need of protection, support and loving care. This is what Christ meant and called the church to be. We have a long way to go… but we can become what we were intended to be by His grace, strength and power. There is no other hope for this issue or for the world that I can see.
Therefore, I do not put my ultimate faith or trust in finding solutions to these problems to our political process or to candidates or to office holders. Rather, I call any and all of them to consider radical alignment with the teachings and principles of Jesus Christ. It is when we join together in agreement on these foundational principles that we can work together and find solutions. This is what happened in England that resulted in the abolition of the slave trade, and what happened in America first with the abolition of slavery, and more recently in the battle for civil rights for all citizens. In both cases, the underlying movements were lead and fueled by Christians taking the teachings of Jesus seriously, and acting upon them without apology. May it happen again in our time, and in this generation.