Born Alive
The pro-life has devoted almost all its resources to repeating a charge that Obama voted for infanticide. The trouble is the charge is false. Here is a discussion of the issue which includes a letter from the bills co-sponsor saying “none of those who voted against SB-1082 favored infanticide”. This makes sense because infanticide was illegal in Illinois before the bill was introduced. Killing the bill would not change that.
Don’t get me wrong. Killing this bill was the wrong thing for him to do. To me it shows that he did not really think it through but just took the pro-choice position based on his political reflexes. Now that could be good or bad. It could be good in the sense that if he is made to do some serious thinking about life issues then he might come to a different position than he has now. It is bad because it makes you wonder why he hadn’t given the issue more thought and what would cause him to do that.
The real trouble I have is with the pro-life folks. It is typical of today’s politics to accuse the opponent of being way more extreme than he is. Especially in ads you find big lies being told to paint somebody as completely irrational. This is both immoral and destructive to the democratic process. It prevents the issues from being rationally debated by the public. What you would hope to get from Christians is something different. But we don’t. They use the same tactic. They accuse Obama of infanticide when they don’t really believe it themselves.
What they should do is say he is pro-choice and that is a good enough reason to not vote for him. That he has praised supreme court justices like Ginsburg or Souter who have voted to overrule the democratically elected state government’s right to decide questions of abortion. These same justices may well do something similar for gay marriage. Making arguments like that would allow the matter to be publically debated. Saying Obama favors infanticide cuts off the debate. It gives him a free pass because all he has to do is point out that the accusation is unfair. He does not have to answer why it is so wrong to let the states decide abortion matters. When the question if framed that way then a strong majority takes the pro-life side. When you start calling pro-choice people monsters then the public starts to take their side.
To me, what is worse is the public seeing Christians being just as willing to use dishonest tactics as everyone else. When we stand out by actually following our own principles then people will take us seriously as moral leaders. The bar is low. Bad moral behavior is the rule. Yet we still fail to rise above that low standard. We sneer when Democrats point out the contradictions between what Jesus taught and what conservative Christians are saying. Should we? As long as Christians on the political stage behave just like everyone else and don’t remind anyone of Jesus, they won’t transform the political world. In fact, the political world is more likely to transform them.
It seems we have to first define “What is infanticide?” before being able to say whether Obama or any person supports it.
Is partial-birth abortion infanticide? Most people I think would say it is not the same thing but that they are similar.
Regardless of the semantics, to allow a child born alive after a “botched” abortion to die is horrible, and the fact is that this has happened, legally, in my country, the United States, as has partial birth abortion, which only recently has been banned, in completely unacceptable to me as a Catholic.
Sen. Obama opposed (for whatever reasons) the born-alive infant protection act and has supported partial birth abortion.
Saying he supports infanticide is not the best way, in my opinion, to bring these evil actions into the public eye; instead, I think you are right that we have to avoid demonizing him but require him to honestly face the truth of his actions and explain them to the public.
What he has actually done, however, is to say that the versions of the bill from the state to the federal level were different to excuse what he has done. This statement is false, as has been shown in many places.
September 24th, 2008 at 3:24 amIt seems we have to first define “What is infanticide?” before being able to say whether Obama or any person supports it.
It is simply the killing of infants who are unwanted for some reason.
Is partial-birth abortion infanticide? Most people I think would say it is not the same thing but that they are similar.
It is clear to me that it is inconsistent to oppose infanticide and accept partial birth abortion or any abortion. Still they are different.
Regardless of the semantics, to allow a child born alive after a “botched” abortion to die is horrible, and the fact is that this has happened, legally, in my country, the United States, as has partial birth abortion, which only recently has been banned, in completely unacceptable to me as a Catholic.
I don’t think allowing the child to die was legal. I am not sure of the details but I think prosecutors simply didn’t pursue charges. They could have.
PBA is legal. Just certain methods of doing it were banned. The ban was mostly symbolic. It established in the supreme court that the unborn do have some rights.
Sen. Obama opposed (for whatever reasons) the born-alive infant protection act and has supported partial birth abortion.
I am actually much more concerned about the PBA thing. The infant protection act was mostly symbolic. Like I said, letting the child die was already illegal.
Saying he supports infanticide is not the best way, in my opinion, to bring these evil actions into the public eye; instead, I think you are right that we have to avoid demonizing him but require him to honestly face the truth of his actions and explain them to the public.
Yes, trying to get him to explain his positions. The trouble is that the pro-choice position is already respected as mainstream. So there is a lot of work to do there.
What he has actually done, however, is to say that the versions of the bill from the state to the federal level were different to excuse what he has done. This statement is false, as has been shown in many places.
September 24th, 2008 at 9:04 pmNot sure about that. I think this whole business about going over the thousands of votes a Senator makes and playing gotcha is just annoying. I know both sides do it. Maybe he was confused. Like I said, it did not appear that he gave this a lot of thought.