Aborting the Future: Obama Ignores Pro-Life Issues in SOTU

National   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Jan 26, 2011   |   11:37AM   |   Washington, DC

President Barack Obama delivered a State of the Union speech last night that was long on political rhetoric on other political topics but essentially ignored pro-life issues at a time when they are prominent on the minds of Americans.

Just one day after hundreds of thousands of people participated in the March for Life in the nation’s capital and on the heels of the national controversy surrounding the arrest of grisly abortion practitioner Kermit Gosnell and his staffers — who killed and injured women in abortions and killed babies via infanticide shortly after their purposeful premature birth — Obama mentioned nothing about abortion.

Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, a pro-life advocate, delivered the Republican response and he mentioned that protecting human life is part of the proper role of the federal government.

“We believe government’s role is both vital and limited — to defend the nation from attack and provide for the common defense … to secure our borders … to protect innocent life,” he said.

But, although she was the keynote speaker at the Rose Dinner following the March for Life and has a consistently pro-life position on abortion, Rep. Michelle Bachmann of Minnesota did not mention pro-life issues either in her Tea Party response to the Obama speech.

Family Research Council president Tony Perkins bemoaned the failure to address pro-life concerns.

“Tonight President Obama appropriately paid tribute to the victims of the Tucson shooting. However, he did not mention the recent indictment of abortionist Kermit Gosnell in Philadelphia for the murder of a mother and seven live-born infants,” he said. “The Philadelphia tragedy serves as a ghastly reminder of the moral toll abortion has taken on America’s sense of justice. U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), in his official Republican response, deserves praise for reminding the President it is the role of the government ‘to protect innocent life,’ not to encourage the taking of it.”

“The President’s policies that promote abortion also undermine family formation. Abortion does this by contributing to infant mortality, victimizing women, and encouraging the abdication of responsibility by men. He is even opposed to commonsense parental notification laws. These laws reaffirm the unique role that a mother and father have in the life of a child,” Perkins told LifeNews.com.

“Regrettably, Mr. Obama’s health care law allows our hard earned dollars to pay for abortion coverage. The American people should not be forced to pay for abortion, which is why it’s necessary for this Congress to pass the ‘No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act’ and restore neutrality on government funding of abortion,” he added.

Obama did mention reducing the size of government and cutting government programs and Penny Nance, the CEO of Concerned Women for America, has one idea she thinks Obama should start with if he’s serious about the cuts.

“If the President is looking for programs to cut, he could start with hundreds of millions used to prop up the abortion industry,” she said. Nance is referring to a bill Congressman Mike Pence has sponsored that would axe the funds the Planned Parenthood abortion business receives for family planning efforts that have failed to cut the abortion totals.

Janice Shaw Crouse, also of Concerned Women for America, noted the lack of mentioning of any pro-life topics on the State of the Union, but pointed out what she believes is hypocrisy from Obama on changing the tone and tenor of Washington.

“The Obama/Reid/Pelosi triangle shoved through universal health care that will (by the time liberal judges and bureaucrats get through with it) result in taxpayer-funded abortions, in spite of overwhelming public opposition,” she said. “Yet, the president thinks that he can now afford to tone down the rhetoric and emphasize bipartisanship and so-called “civility.” He is making a show of taking the “high road” at the moment, and we’re not suppose to notice his having gotten the massive expansion of government control over the economy that he wanted by taking the ‘low road.'”

“Certainly it is time to address some of the nation’s worst domestic issues, among them the social issuesthat  are root causes of many of our cultural and economic crises,” she said.