Former Director of Pro-Abortion "Catholic" Group Backs Barack Obama

National   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Feb 18, 2008   |   9:00AM   |   WASHINGTON, DC

Former Director of Pro-Abortion "Catholic" Group Backs Barack Obama Email this article
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
February 18
, 2008

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — The former director of a pro-abortion group that claims to be Catholic has endorsed Barack Obama as the most pro-abortion presidential candidate in the race. Frances Kissling, the former president of Catholics for a Free Choice, responded to a Huffington Post editorial by Ellie Smeal, Gloria Steinem and others endorsing Hillary Clinton.

Kissling admitted that there is little difference between the pro-abortion policies both Democratic candidates would advance as president, and the judges they would appoint to keep abortion legal another 35 years.

"I believe in the nitty gritty of a day-to-day legislative agenda, there will be little difference between Clinton and Obama," Kissling wrote.

Kissling says both will nominate pro-abortion judges, both will force taxpayers to fund abortions on an international scale, and both will fund the UNFPA, which has been found to have supported the forced-abortion policies in China.

But, Kissling says the other pro-abortion activists also "ignored the question of whether the Senator has led efforts to restore Medicaid funding for abortions. She has not."

She also said Clinton refused to initially include abortion as a mandated service in her initial universal health care plan she proposed during her husband’s administration.

Kissling also complained that Clinton’s plan would allow religious hospitals to opt out of doing abortions.

"It would have allowed any provider, religious or not, to refuse to provide any service they deemed immoral and still participate in the plan and reap the benefits of participation," Kissling writes.

Kissling admits that Obama has a shorter record and that he must be asked tough questions about how far he would go to push the pro-abortion agenda.

Yet she says she’s "convinced that in the larger struggle to complete the social transformation promised by Roe, Obama’s instincts and values will bring us closer to that transformation."

Kissling has written frequently about how the pro-abortion movement needs to re-examine the abortion debate and offer a few concessions while keeping virtually all abortions legal. She says Obama can lead that charge.

"It is not about beating anti-abortion advocates to death; it is about listening to the majority of Americans who believe that abortion should be legal and highly regulated, acknowledging what it is that they are afraid of and making them less afraid," Kissling explained.

"I think Barack Obama is the person who can do that. I deeply believe he is the best hope we have to ending both the abortion wars," she concluded.