Obama Backs Infanticide, Lies About Abortion, Isn’t He Extreme?

Opinion   |   Andrew Bair   |   Aug 27, 2012   |   6:37PM   |   Washington, DC

The Obama campaign and its allies in the mainstream media have launched an all-out assault on Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan’s pro-life stances, repeating ad nauseam that they believe them to be “extreme” and out of touch with the American public.

President Obama told the Associated Press, “I can’t speak to Governor Romney’s motivations. What I can say is that he has signed up for positions, extreme positions that are very consistent with positions that a number of House Republicans have taken. And whether he actually believes in those or not, I have no doubt that he would carry forward some of the things that he’s talked about.”

However, it is not the Republican Party or its pro-life platform that is “extreme.” In fact, just this week CNN released a poll showing a majority of Americans opposing abortion in most or all circumstances.  Mitt Romney’s position on abortion is right in line with the majority of Americans who oppose the vast majority of all abortions.  Conversely, President Obama holds an “extreme” position by supporting abortion for any reason through all nine months of pregnancy and even opposing legal protection for infants who survive abortion attempts.

FactCheck.Org called out the Obama “Truth Team” for claiming the Republican Party platform called for banning all abortions, including in cases of rape and incest. In fact, the platform is silent on exceptions, leaving that decision up to Congress and the states.

“The Republican Party plank endorsing a Human Life Amendment does not take a position on which version of a Human Life Amendment should eventually be adopted,” James Bopp, the co-chairman of the party platform’s Subcommittee on Restoring Constitutional Government, emailed to The Hill. “We leave that decision to Congress and the people of the United States at that time. Thus, we do not take a position on which exceptions should be included in a Human Life Amendment.”

The mainstream media has predictably turned a blind eye to Barack Obama’s extremism on abortion.

The National Right to Life Committee correctly noted, “The mainstream news media is again busy ginning up stories exploring the outer parameters of the abortion-related policy positions of pro-life Republican candidates, even where this involves remote, theoretical scenarios — while demonstrating a near-total disinterest in putting the spotlight on the outer parameters of the ‘abortion rights’ positions embraced by President Obama, even on matters under current legislative consideration.”

In an opinion piece for Politico, Rich Lowry of National Review writes, “President Obama is an extremist on abortion. He has never supported any meaningful restriction on it, and never will.”  Lowry notes that Obama has never been a moderate or even remotely mainstream on abortion. As a state senator in Illinois, Obama opposed legislation to protect newborn infants born alive in the course of an abortion.

Lowry writes, “About a year after his final vote against the bill, Obama gave his famous 2004 Democratic convention speech extolling post-partisan moderation. But he couldn’t even bring himself to protect infants brutalized and utterly alone in some medical facility taking what might be only a few fragile breaths on this Earth. Some moderation. The federal version of the bill that he opposed in Illinois passed the U.S. Senate unanimously. Some post-partisanship.”

Just this week, audio surfaced from the debate in the Illinois State Senate over the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act in which then-State Senator Obama referred to a newborn infant as “a fetus outside of the womb.” When Obama notoriously said in 2008 that knowing when life begins was above his pay grade he wasn’t kidding.

After over a year of allegations by abortion advocates that the Republican Party was “waging war on women,” it appeared the talking point had effectively gone out of style back in April when Obama adviser Hilary Rosen attacked stay-at-home mom Ann Romney, saying she had “never worked a day in her life.” In the aftermath of Rosen’s statements, the DNC appeared to be dropping the “war on women” terminology.

“I’m not a fan of the term,” DNC communications director Brad Woodhouse said in an interview. “I mean I’m sure I’ve probably used it. We all fall into these easy vernaculars…but we in the DNC have not been running a campaign based on the term ‘war on Women.’ That’s a myth cooked up by Republicans.”

CLICK LIKE IF YOU’RE PRO-LIFE!

 

Yet in the wake of Missouri Senate candidate Rep. Todd Akin’s comments about rape, which have been disavowed by major Republican Party leaders including presidential candidate Mitt Romney, abortion advocates resurrected their “war on women” rhetoric. NARAL Pro-Choice America, the ACLU, EMILY’s List and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee have ramped up their “GOP war on women” attacks. The DCCC even features a special page of its online gift shop dedicated to pro-abortion memorabilia.

Their new tactic is to tie Republicans to Akin’s controversial remarks, including those Republicans who called on Akin to drop out. As former Obama White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel once said, “You never want a serious crisis go to waste.”  Since the Obama campaign evidently wants to have a debate over abortion, pro-life advocates should take them up on it and seize the opportunity to call out President Obama on his own abortion extremism.