{"id":20665,"date":"2012-08-31T11:37:16","date_gmt":"2012-08-31T15:37:16","guid":{"rendered":"\/news\/?p=20665"},"modified":"2013-04-03T23:27:47","modified_gmt":"2013-04-04T03:27:47","slug":"thinkprogress-tries-fails-to-sanitize-barack-obamas-abortion-extremism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/thinkprogress-tries-fails-to-sanitize-barack-obamas-abortion-extremism\/","title":{"rendered":"ThinkProgress tries, fails to sanitize Barack Obama’s abortion extremism"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

\"\"<\/a>Democrats plan to milk the \u201cRepublican War on Women\u201d narrative for all its worth, bombarding their convention<\/a> with multiple female pro-abortion speakers and sneering<\/a> that the Republican convention\u2019s string of strong female voices were nothing more than \u201cshiny packaging\u201d to disguise the \u201cdisaster for women\u2019s future\u201d Mitt Romney\u2019s victory would bring.<\/p>\n

But for all their tough talk, some liberals recognize that Romney’s abortion stance<\/a> is closer to the American mainstream<\/a> than Barack Obama\u2019s, and that the mythical abortion gender gap isn’t as much of an asset<\/a> as advertised. So some defensive maneuvering is in order.<\/p>\n

At ThinkProgress, Annie-Rose Strasser tries to sanitize<\/a> Obama\u2019s refusal to do anything about infanticide in Illinois, which ex-Gov. Mike Huckabee blasted in his speech to the Republican National Convention:<\/p>\n

That bill, which Obama did vote against, would have required doctors to resuscitate an aborted fetus if legislators felt it had any chance of viability. But Obama\u2019s reasoning for voting against the bill was nothing like how Gingrich and Huckabee represent it. In interviews with a range of media outlets, Obama expressed that he feared the bill would undermine Roe v Wade by defining any fetus as a human with human rights and claimed it could be used to take down any abortion rights legislation that anti-choice activists didn\u2019t like. <\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is no defense at all. Strasser isn\u2019t refuting Huckabee\u2019s characterization of Obama\u2019s votes – \u201cagainst a bill that would say that you had to give medical treatment to a baby that was born as a result of a botched abortion\u201d – but rather just suggesting Obama had a good reason for doing so. Note to ThinkProgress: \u201ceditorializing\u201d is not the same as \u201cfact-checking.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even so, by any objective measure, that\u2019s not<\/em> a good enough reason to oppose protecting newborns. First, it\u2019s a lie. <\/em>In 2003, Illinois lawmakers returned to the issue, amending the measure with the very language Obama claims was the original deal-breaker. Senate Amendment 001<\/a> read:<\/p>\n

Nothing in this Section shall be construed to affirm, deny, expand, or contract any legal right applicable to any member of the species homo sapiens at any point prior to being born alive as defined in this Section.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

At the time, Obama chaired the health committee, which unanimously added the language – only for Obama to vote no anyway, killing it before it reached the Senate floor (PDF link<\/a>). (For further documentation and background, click here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

Second, the idea that any politician with a shred of decency would prioritize theoretical fears about eventually overturning a judicial decision above the actual starvation deaths of newborns is unspeakably horrific. Abandoning government\u2019s most basic duty, protecting the rights of the defenseless, for the sake of a legal sham<\/a> denying the people their right to vote on society\u2019s most pressing human rights issue\u2026if this doesn\u2019t demonstrate how fully these people have elevated abortionism to the status of a grotesque religion, nothing will.<\/p>\n

Obama was, however, \u201cfully in support<\/a>\u201d of a federal bill that provided the same protection viable fetuses while also including protections for Roe v Wade.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So in 2001 and 2003, when the problem was staring him in the face and he could have actually done something valuable, he sided with the problem. But in 2008, while he was running for president, we were supposed to take his word for it that he \u201cwould have\u201d done the right thing in Congress. Okay.<\/p>\n

Obama also felt that the legislation would have taken decision-making out of the hands of doctors<\/a>, giving anti-abortion activists an opening to sue abortion providers by alleging that they chose to terminate the life of a viable fetus on purpose. <\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is another justification for Obama\u2019s position, not a denial that he took it. Another bad one, too – what he really said<\/a> was that he didn\u2019t like implying that doctors wouldn\u2019t administer life-saving treatment to such newborns on their own. Which is absurd – any law is for the minority who do evil, not the majority who abstain. And again, this was not hypothetical<\/em> – newborns were being left to die. Christ Hospital admitted it (PDF link<\/a>). It wasn’t being prosecuted<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He did not, however, express any support for \u201cinfanticide\u201d or for ending the life of a viable fetus, as Huckabee and Gingrich claim.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So unless pro-abortion politicians use the words \u201cI support infanticide,\u201d we can\u2019t hold them accountable for protecting de facto infanticide. Too bad they aren\u2019t such sticklers for rhetorical charity when calling pro-lifers sexist religious fanatics who want to legitimize rape, leave women for dead in back alleys, control people\u2019s sex lives, and incite violence against abortionists\u2026<\/p>\n

There\u2019s simply no getting around Obama\u2019s record of protecting infanticide. Nor can the rest of<\/a> the president\u2019s right-to-life record – nearly unlimited abortion during all three trimesters, federal funding for abortion, opposition to states\u2019 right to make their own abortion policy 0 be spun as moderate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If Team Obama wants to make this election about abortion, Team Romney should encourage them to bring it on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54,"featured_media":14183,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nThinkProgress tries, fails to sanitize Barack Obama's abortion extremism - Live Action News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/thinkprogress-tries-fails-to-sanitize-barack-obamas-abortion-extremism\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"ThinkProgress tries, fails to sanitize Barack Obama's abortion extremism - Live Action News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"If Team Obama wants to make this election about abortion, Team Romney should encourage them to bring it on.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/thinkprogress-tries-fails-to-sanitize-barack-obamas-abortion-extremism\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Live Action News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-08-31T15:37:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-04-04T03:27:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/obama2.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"530\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"374\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Calvin Freiburger\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@liveaction\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@liveaction\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Calvin Freiburger\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/thinkprogress-tries-fails-to-sanitize-barack-obamas-abortion-extremism\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/thinkprogress-tries-fails-to-sanitize-barack-obamas-abortion-extremism\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Calvin Freiburger\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/6eb2bf94c8064b71953ba137bf413c4d\"},\"headline\":\"ThinkProgress tries, fails to sanitize Barack Obama’s abortion extremism\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-08-31T15:37:16+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-04-04T03:27:47+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/thinkprogress-tries-fails-to-sanitize-barack-obamas-abortion-extremism\/\"},\"wordCount\":837,\"commentCount\":15,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Politics\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/thinkprogress-tries-fails-to-sanitize-barack-obamas-abortion-extremism\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/thinkprogress-tries-fails-to-sanitize-barack-obamas-abortion-extremism\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/thinkprogress-tries-fails-to-sanitize-barack-obamas-abortion-extremism\/\",\"name\":\"ThinkProgress tries, fails to sanitize Barack Obama's abortion extremism - 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