Pro-Life Activist to Challenge Pro-Abortion Obama in Democratic Primary

Politics   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Jan 18, 2011   |   2:12PM   |   Washington, DC

Randall Terry, the controversial pro-life activist, will challenge pro-abortion President Barack Obama in the Democratic primary with the sole mission of bringing up the issue of abortion.

Terry understands he has absolutely no shot of winning the Democratic nomination over the president, but he says his goal is to expose Obama’s pro-abortion record and energizing pro-life voters to oppose him in the general election, where Obama will face one of numerous potential pro-life Republican candidates.

He said the goal of his campaign is to “create a crisis of conscience for Americans regarding” abortion and to “pound on President Obama’s agenda” starting with abortion.

“My constituency is the millions of pro-life advocates who want to make child killing illegal from conception until birth. My base is those who know that we must show Americans the victims of abortion, in order to restore the full protection of law to unborn babies,” he said in a statement LifeNews.com received. “Will I defeat Mr. Obama? I’m not delusional. But while I may not defeat him, I can expose the genocide Obama promotes in America and around the world.”

Additionally, terry says he plans to run ads on television showing graphic footage of abortions taking place — something candidates for political office are entitled to do because of federal laws obligating television stations to run ads from those seeking public office. One of the ads could come during the 2012 Super Bowl, where hundreds of millions of people worldwide pay attention to the advertising almost as much as they do the football game.

“America has never truly debated child killing, because America has never truly seen child killing. We will use FEC and FCC laws for federal candidates to bring America face to face with this massacre of the innocents,” he said.

Although Terry will be able to raise funds for his candidacy to promote his efforts, he will not likely join Obama on stage at any presidential debate, as most debate sponsors require candidates to meet a certain level of support to be included in debates and other public forums.

Rabbi Yehuda Levin of New York City is one of terry’s early supporters.

“I plan to support, promote and assist Randall in his run for the Presidency. We must, and we will wake up America,” he said.

But Wesley J. Smith, a respected bioethics attorney, called the move by Terry a politpublciity stunt and said it would ultimately help Obama.

“This has President Obama shaking in his boots!  That self aggrandizer, Randall Terry, says he is going to challenge Obama in the Democratic presidential primaries,” he said. “If anything, Terry’s entry will help those he claims to oppose.  The media will gleefully hone in on his every fanatical-sounding word–I once heard him essentially espouse theocracy–so as to promote the meme that those who hold pro life views are extreme.”

“That is what happened in the Terri Schiavo case. When he walked through the door, the NYT, after months of ignoring the story because (in my view) Michael Schiavo looked so bad (having babies with his “fiance” belied his claim to be a loving husband), made it their front page story. And with that, the already uphill fight for the heart and minds of the general public became a vertical cliff,” Smith added. “Make no mistake: This challenge is about one thing; getting Terry attention.  It won’t accomplish anything for the anti-abortion cause he espouses.”