Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- The National Education Association endorsed Barack Obama on Friday and a leading pro-life group says there is significant irony in the endorsement of a candidate who favors the destruction of the next generation of schoolchildren.

"The tragic irony of the NEA's endorsement of Barack Obama is not lost on millions of pro-lifers across the country," Karen Cross, the National Right to Life political director, told LifeNews.com.

"The NEA has chosen to back a presidential candidate who wants to continue a policy of abortion on demand, which has resulted in nearly 50 million missing students in classrooms from coast to coast since 1973,” she said.

Senator Obama has said that, if elected president, the first thing he would do is sign the so-called "Freedom of Choice Act" – a bill that would make partial-birth abortion legal again, require taxpayer funding of abortion and nullify virtually all federal and state limitations on abortion, such as parental notification laws.

"Barack Obama's extremist pro-abortion agenda is a poison pill for our nation's classrooms," Cross added. "It borders on the incomprehensible that our nation's educators would get behind a candidate whose agenda will result in more and more missing children."

This week, pro-life advocates protested at the national NEA convention at the Washington Convention Center. The protest, which started on Wednesday, pointed out how the union has upset pro-life advocates many times over the years.

Most recently, the NEA received criticism from pro-life advocates when it hosted a forum featuring a late-term abortion practitioner.

The National Education Association came under fire in march for allowing a radical pro-abortion group to use its building to host a forum featuring controversial late-term abortion practitioner George Tiller.

LifeNews.com reported on the NEA-hosted pro-abortion forum and the criticism of it. Later, NEA Assistant General Counsel Michael Simpson slammed the criticism as "untrue and unfair."

ACTION: Send your complaints about the Obama endorsement to the National Education Association. Go to http://www.nea.org/aboutnea/contact.html for contact information.

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