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Obama's pro choice position
By:georgiajan
Date: 10/20/08 1:54pm
In Response To: Re: Obama's pro Abortion position (Lola)

I don't understand why you presume that those who disagree with you haven't read what you have written. I have read all you have written and I have read factcheck.org and it does not support your position. It says:

A Matter of Definition

The documents from the NRLC support the group’s claims that Obama is misrepresenting the contents of SB 1082. But does this mean – as some, like anti-abortion crusader Jill Stanek, have claimed – that he supports infanticide?

In discussions of abortion rights, definitions are critically important. The main bills under discussion, SB 1082 and the federal BAIPA, are both definition bills. They are not about what can and should be done to babies; they are about how one defines "baby" in the first place. Those who believe that human life begins at conception or soon after can argue that even a fetus with no chance of surviving outside the womb is an "infant." We won't try to settle that one.

What we can say is that many other people – perhaps most – think of "infanticide" as the killing of an infant that would otherwise live. And there are already laws in Illinois, which Obama has said he supports, that protect these children even when they are born as the result of an abortion. Illinois compiled statute 720 ILCS 510/6 states that physicians performing abortions when the fetus is viable must use the procedure most likely to preserve the fetus' life; must be attended by another physician who can care for a born-alive infant; and must "exercise the same degree of professional skill, care and diligence to preserve the life and health of the child as would be required of a physician providing immediate medical care to a child born alive in the course of a pregnancy termination which was not an abortion." Failure to do any of the above is considered a felony. NRLC calls this law "loophole-ridden."

On the Record

While we don't have a record of Obama's 2003 comments on SB 1082, he did express his objection to the 2001 and 2002 bills.

Obama, Senate floor, 2002: [A]dding a – an additional doctor who then has to be called in an emergency situation to come in and make these assessments is really designed simply to burden the original decision of the woman and the physician to induce labor and perform an abortion. … I think it’s important to understand that this issue ultimately is about abortion and not live births.

Obama, Senate floor, 2001: Number one, whenever we define a previable fetus as a person that is protected by the equal protection clause or the other elements in the Constitution, what we’re really saying is, in fact, that they are persons that are entitled to the kinds of protections that would be provided to a – a child, a nine-month-old – child that was delivered to term. That determination then, essentially, if it was accepted by a court, would forbid abortions to take place. I mean, it – it would essentially bar abortions, because the equal protection clause does not allow somebody to kill a child, and if this is a child, then this would be an antiabortion statute.

Obama's critics are free to speculate on his motives for voting against the bills, and postulate a lack of concern for babies' welfare. But his stated reasons for opposing "born-alive" bills have to do with preserving abortion rights, a position he is known to support and has never hidden.

BTW, the factchecker to which you refer has nothing to do with FOCA, embryonic stem cell research, etc.

I don't know why you cannot accept that reasonable people disagree on this complex issue and why you have to demonize those who disagree with you.

Messages In This Thread

Obama's pro choice position -- georgiajan -- 10/19/08 2:17pm
Someone else's take... -- ray -- 10/20/08 6:34pm
Born Alive Infant During an Abortion -- Island Girl -- 10/20/08 10:48pm
Re: Obama's pro Abortion position -- Lola -- 10/20/08 10:55am
Wouldn't this... -- ray -- 10/20/08 6:21pm
Re: Obama's pro Abortion position -- Roger -- 10/20/08 2:16pm
Obama's pro choice position -- georgiajan -- 10/20/08 1:54pm
Re: Obama's pro choice position -- Roger -- 10/20/08 2:08pm
Not quite -- Lola -- 10/20/08 5:06pm
Funny... -- ray -- 10/20/08 2:24pm
Re: Funny... -- Sunshine -- 10/20/08 3:09pm
Uh, and just who... -- ray -- 10/20/08 3:47pm
Re: Uh, and just who... -- Sunshine -- 10/21/08 7:01am
Re: Funny... -- Sunshine -- 10/20/08 2:53pm
Re: Obama's pro choice position -- Bob and Pat -- 10/20/08 2:22pm
Re: Obama's pro Abortion position -- Roger -- 10/20/08 1:28pm
Re: Ahem, let's not forget Type 1 Diabetes, LOL!! -- Jenny Shreve -- 10/20/08 9:00pm
Clone tissues yes, but why create embryos? -- Lola -- 10/20/08 5:03pm
Professor Lola? -- ray -- 10/20/08 5:54pm
I'll bartend :D *NM* -- Bob and Pat -- 10/20/08 6:09pm
Yeah...Can you supply some of those... -- ray -- 10/20/08 6:24pm
Re: Clone tissues yes, but why create embryos? -- Roger -- 10/20/08 5:29pm
Re: Obama's pro choice position -- Roger -- 10/19/08 4:52pm