The conservative pro-life movement has been hitting Obama on his explanation last night for why he opposed the Born Alive Act in the Illinois state legislature. But God-o-Meter thought the bigger headline from the abortion discussion in the debate was Obama's emphasis on reducing abortion while foregoing any rigorous defense of a woman's right to choose.
Check out this exchange from last night:
Compare it to this exchange over abortion between John Kerry and George W. Bush from a 2004 debate:
The thrust of Kerry's response: as much as he might oppose abortion personally, he couldn't force his personal beliefs on others. The thrust of Obama's: the goal of reducing abortion is one that's widely shared by Americans and there are plenty of reasonable ways to work toward it without outlawing the procedure.
Pro-life groups view such rhetoric as cynically political; what legislation has Obama ever pursued, at the state or federal level, to reduce demand for abortion?
Politically speaking, though, it's striking how much those themes echo George W. Bush's response '04 about building a culture of life, which also de-emphasized the decades old Republican shibboleths about the need to ban abortion completely.
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I am pro abortion on the emphasis that I have a right to make my own decision which is Anti-Abortion. That child is a child of God and no one has the right to kill this child except God and no one else. Let God decide not the woman that got Pregnant, It might not have been planned but God planned it for her and the child, for a specific reason which you or I do not have the right to change the outcome.
What right do we have to kill an unborn child isn't this the same as Hitler killing off all disabled and handicapped that became a problem for the life of everyone. Isn't this a killing also, I believe that any one that causes a abortion should be excommunicated from the church in fact the Catholic Church already has this on their books.
Why doesn't everyone have the same responsiblity, rather then make a hardship on them it should be a blessing upon them.
Abortion has no place in Federal Politics! This is a matter of state and should not be shouldered by big government as a tool for election. I don't think that abortion is a matter for debate among people that who don't personally have to make these difficult decisions. I have these arguments often with people, I am by no means saying it should be used as a means of birth control but their are valid excuses for this practice and to ignore it is narrow minded regardless of religion.
Tom writes:
From the 2008 GOP Party Platform:
Tom goes onto say:
God-o-Meter doesn't disagree. For all Obama's rhetoric about the need to bridge the divide over abortion rights by working to reduce demand for abortion, there appears to be no evidence that he's supported legislation aimed at doing so at either the state or federal level.
'We support a human life amendment to the Constitution, and we endorse legislation to make clear that the Fourteenth Amendment’s protections apply to unborn children.'
Hmmm. If legislation passes that makes clear the 14th Amendemt's protections applying to unborn children, wouldn't a human life amendment be redundant (unless the clarity legislation came in the form of another amendment)?
While the implications of this statement may be assumed to mean an end to abortion completely, I question whether the majority of Republican politicians would take this to heart if asked about hypothetical senarios regarding the possible death of the mother in absence of an abortion. After all, some abortions result in a living birth which is why a Born-Alive Act was deemed necessary. I myself think abortion should be done away with completely since I consider it the violent taking of an innocent human life (and am aware that most would consider me an extremist.)
Also, President Bush's lack of rhetoric deaming necessary the outlawing of abortion may be because he deemed it a mute point, given the makeup of the Supreme Court at that time would have made it impossible for Roe v. Wade to be overturned and for criminalizing legislation to be implemented during his second term. It doesn't necessarily mean that he would see criminalizing abortion as futile. Just food for thought.
Watching this debate makes you kind of wonder exactly why we elected and re-elected George Bush.
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