Congressman Chris Smith: Replace Obama With Pro-Life President

Politics   |   Steven Ertelt   |   May 30, 2011   |   10:54AM   |   Washington, DC

Congressman Chris Smith, the head of the pro-life caucus of lawmakers in the House of Representatives, says voters must replace pro-abortion President Barack Obama with a pro-life president when they vote in the 2012 elections.

“I do think we need a man or woman who is totally committed to the culture of life and not just in name only or symbolically but somebody who really believes in the family and in the preciousness of all life, including the child in the womb,” the New Jersey congressman told the Catholic News Agency.

Having previously called Obama out on his lengthy pro-abortion record, Smith says giving him another four years in the White House would be a disaster for women and unborn children by allowing him a chance to further entrench abortion, abortion funding and international promotion of abortion.

“President Obama is the abortion president. If he gets in for four more years he’ll be untethered,” Smith told CNA. “Obama will pack the Supreme Court too. The only realistic way that Roe v. Wade will be repealed is through the courts. If he gets a chance to put one or two more judges on (the bench), then a generation will be lost and over a million kids a year will suffer the cruelty of abortion.”

“Look at the stand Obama took on the threat to withdraw funding for Planned Parenthood Federation of America from the U.S. budget,” Smith explained. “He said, ‘I’ll shut down the government before I don’t fund Planned Parenthood.’ So his priorities couldn’t have been clearer. His priority will be to fund all pro-abortion, non-governmental organizations to the max.”

Smith told the Catholic news outlet that there is a real danger other pro-life nations could go the way of Kenya, where the Obama administration spent tens of millions promoting a new constitution that weakened the nation’s pro-life laws and paved the way for legalized abortion.

“Look at what happened recently in Kenya where we (the US government) spent 61.5 million dollars and funded 83 non-governmental organizations to change their constitution to include a right to abortion,” he said.

Smith says it is likely that the GOP nominee will be someone who opposes abortion and will be able to contrast with the Obama pro-abortion record.

“The Republican Party is the pro-life party. And I say the next with deep regret – the Democrat Party has become the party of abortion. Ninety-five percent of our members in the House on the Republican side are pro-life and 90 percent of the Democrat side is pro-abortion,” Smith said.

The congressman said he has not made up his mind about which of the potential presidential candidates to support.

Meanwhile, Smith also talked with the National Catholic Register and said he sees a real momentum shift to the pro-life side.

“I’ve recently made two speeches about this. The pro-life movement has never been stronger. Never,” he said. “I’ve been in it 38 years, and it’s never been stronger. Also, polls show our young people are trending. I see it at the March for Life every year. I see it in high schools where I speak. I used to be booed in the ’80s because I’d get a question about abortion. Now they break out into applause and come up and shake my hand. These are high-school students.”

“It’s happened for a number of reasons: ultrasound, all the pro-life laws that have been painstakingly passed throughout the country, especially form of consent , parental notification, waiting periods, no funding, prohibitions and pregnancy-care centers (which are the greatest expressions of love ever because a lot of those women are post- abortive and helping women),” Smith says.

He continued: “And then there is the Silent No More awareness campaign and other post-abortive groups of women telling their story. We think it’s why Justice Kennedy voted with us on the partial-birth abortion bill: the 2,000 or so (I forget the exact number) of women who told their stories. These stories are just beginning to come out, and I think they will continue to push the message that it [abortion] is not just bad for babies and is violence toward babies — it’s violence against women as well.”