Sarah Palin: Abortion an "Essential" Issue in 2010 Elections to Mitigate Obama
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
October 6, 2010
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — In a speech Tuesday night at a pro-life event in Houston, former presidential candidate Sarah Palin said abortion is an "essential" issue for the pro-life movement in the 2010 elections. Palin said it is important to take advantage of the opportunity the elections present to mitigate President Barack Obama’s pro-abortion agenda.
Palin said Obama has been responsible for "the biggest advance of the abortion industry in America" thanks to the ObamaCare bill that includes abortion funding, she said, according to CNN.
She added Obama is "the most pro-abortion president to ever occupy the White House,"
"That’s why it’s essential that we use the 2010 midterms to elect a Congress that will make undoing the damage of Obamacare its first priority," Palin said.
Palin also spent time bashing the mainstream media for their misleading coverage of the elections, including the recent rally in Washington spearheaded by conservative commentator Glenn Beck that drew hundreds of thousands of conservative and pro-life voters.
"They didn’t want you to believe your own eyes," she said. "It was almost Orwellian to consider what we read after the rally, how the media was trying to portray what had gone on there."
The former Alaska governor appeared before 2,500 gathered at First Baptist Church of Houston at an event sponsored by Heroic Media, a pro-life organization raising funds to show television commercials providing help for pregnant women considering abortion.
Palin’s pressing the pro-life issue comes at a time when other potential 2012 presidential candidates are backing down on it — with Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels and Mississippi Gov. Hailey Barbour saying there should be a truce on social issues like abortion while the economy becomes the main focus.
A coalition of leaders of pro-life groups released a statement yesterday saying there should be no truce on abortion and that issues like abortion should take a high priority.
Daniels told the Weekly Standard this summer that the next president "would have to call a truce on the so-called social issues."
"We’re going to just have to agree to get along for a little while," by casting social issues like abortion aside so the next president can focus on fixing the beleaguered economy.
Barbour faced his own backlash from pro-life advocates after saying at a breakfast on Wednesday that pro-life advocates should ditch social issues this election cycle in favor of focusing on the economy.
Daniels told the Weekly Standard the next president "would have to call a truce on the so-called social issues."
"We’re going to just have to agree to get along for a little while," by casting social issues like abortion aside so the next president can focus on fixing the beleaguered economy.
Daniels told WS reporter John McCormack "I don’t know," when asked if he would issue the executive order every pro-life president has done by instituting the Mexico City Policy Obama revoked.
That caused such a stir that Daniels was forced to walk back the comments — later telling reporter Michael Gerson he would sign the Mexico City Policy but saying he would stick to his controversial comments calling for a "truce" on abortion.
Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour faced his own backlash from pro-life advocates after saying at a breakfast on Wednesday that pro-life advocates should ditch social issues this election cycle in favor of focusing on the economy.
“Any issue that takes people’s eye off of unemployment, job creation, economic growth, taxes, spending, deficits, debts is taking your eye off the ball,” Barbour said, according to a Daily Caller report.
“But if somebody goes to campaign for governor candidate x, I would hope that somebody would stay focused on the issues that matter to the campaign: jobs, the economy, taxes, spending, debt, deficits,” Barbour continued. “You run down rabbit trails, you’re wasting— you’re using up valuable resources that could be used to talk to people about what they care about.”
The truce has come under fire from Rep. Mike Pence, Congressman Paul Ryan, and former presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, among others.
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