The re-election campaign of President Barack Obama has hired an activist who formerly worked for one of the top pro-abortion groups to head up a new women’s outreach effort for the 2012 presidential election.
Obama’s campaign is bringing in Heather Colburn, who worked for both Emily’s List as well as the Planned Parenthood abortion business to lead his “Women for Obama” campaign, a new outreach effort designed to reach women votes.
“Women have always been the heart of the Obama organization and they will play a crucial role in ensuring the President has four more years to protect and continue the progress we’ve made,” Colburn told US News. “I’m honored to be on board, and look forward to working alongside the thousands of women across the country who are already dedicating themselves and their time to help deliver the women’s vote.”
President Obama has a longstanding relationship with Emily’s List and Planned Parenthood and they held a fundraiser for him this Fall, including First Lady Michelle Obama and, in her first appearance for Obama, pro-abortion activist Gloria Steinem.
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the pro-abortion congresswoman Obama recently installed as the chair of the national Democratic Party, was on hand for the event, which the Huntington Post reported would have tickets starting at $500 and going on up to $38,500. Wasserman Schultz and Steinem, along with the Emily’s List pro-abortion political action committee, supported Hillary Clinton over Obama during the 2008 Democratic primaries, but all three switched to Obama after Clinton lost to the former Illinois senator.
The event was geared towards women and mothers and daughters were encouraged to attend, though the liberal news web site indicated it was not part of the official “Women for Obama” effort that is officially tied into Obama’s re-election campaign.
“Women are a really important constituency for us,” said an Obama campaign aide. “Their involvement and support was integral in 2008 and we are not taking their support for granted in 2012. The idea behind this fundraiser is engaging women, on a wider scale, to get involved and energized about the political process and the 2012 election.”
In May, Obama curried favor with the head of Planned Parenthood.
Obama met with about 50 people during a dinner at a posh home in West Lake Hills owned by venture capitalist Blaine Wesner and philanthropist Alexa Wesner, according to the Austin Statesman. There, leading Democrats forked out $35,800 per person and $50,000 per couple to attend the swanky event with the president. Although a public list of the names of the guest was not released, one prominent attendee outed herself: Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards. “Dinner with President Obama in my home town! Doesn’t get nuch [sic] better than that,” she said on Twitter Tuesday night.
Richards is one of the most frequent visitors to the White House and top Obama administration events and she last spent time with the Obamas when Michelle Obama gave an award to Pakistan’s Ghulam Sughra during the International Women of Courage Awards ceremony at the State Department in Washington in March. Sughra was honored along with other recipients of the International Women of Courage Award at a ceremony where Obama said that, by overcoming fear and speaking up, the award winners had inspired other women to use their voices.
The award recipients were also invited to the White House event that commemorated the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day and recognizing March as Women’s History Month in the United States. However, the president of the national Planned Parenthood abortion business was there.
Richards again sent a message out on Twitter bragging about attending the event, saying she was “Celebrating the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day at the White House with First Lady Michelle Obama.”
Other abortion advocates joined Richards, according to another tweet saying, “And with two of my heroines for women – [pro-abortion] Congresswomen Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Nita Lowey – you are amazing.”
Visitor logs LifeNews.com obtained in February 2010 revealed what pro-life advocates suspected would happen once President Barack Obama took over as presdient. He and his administration have allowed the Planned Parenthood abortion business unfettered access to the White House and top staffers.
At that time, Richards had visited the White House and spent time with Obama administration officials on four occasions.
The Obama re-election campaign focus on women comes at a time when women are trending pro-life on the issue of abortion.
The Gallup polling firm conducted a national survey from May 5-8 with a random sample of 1,018 adults, aged 18 and older from across the nation and found, by a 24 percent margin, 61-37 percent, Americans take the pro-life view that abortions should either be legal under no circumstances or legal only under a few circumstances.
“Americans are rather conservative in their stance on abortion, with 61% now preferring that abortion be legal in only a few circumstances or no circumstances. By contrast, 37% want abortion legal in all or most circumstances,” Gallup analyst Lydia Saad wrote. “Over the past two decades, Americans have consistently leaned toward believing abortion should be legal in only a few or no circumstances, although less so in the mid-1990s than since about 1997, when combined support for these has averaged close to 60%.”
Breaking down those numbers further, Gallup found that pro-life view as seen across the board — with 60 percent of women and 61 percent of men saying they want all or almost all abortions illegal. Women actually take a stronger pro-life view than men with 24 percent of American women wanting all abortions made illegal and 36 percent wanting almost all illegal, compared with 19 percent of men who want to ban all abortions and 42 percent of men who want to prohibit almost all.
Given Obama’s lengthy pro-abortion record, pro-life groups will be working overtime to educate Americans about it and urging them to support the eventual Republican nominee, who will almost certainly be someone who is pro-life.
