Catholic Pro-Life Leader: On Abortion and Euthanasia Barack Obama is Pro-Death

National   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Feb 28, 2008   |   9:00AM   |   WASHINGTON, DC

Catholic Pro-Life Leader: On Abortion and Euthanasia Barack Obama is Pro-Death Email this article
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
February 28
, 2008

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — A prominent Catholic pro-life leader says Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama continues to prove he embraces a culture of death. Obama had a long-standing pro-abortion position and, on Tuesday, reiterated his stance that helping save Terri Schiavo from a euthanasia death was the wrong thing for Congress to do.

In Tuesday’s debate with Hillary Clinton, as LifeNews.com first reported, Obama called his vote for a bill to allow her family to take their lawsuit to save her life to federal court his "biggest mistake."

Catholic League president Bill Donohue addressed that issue and Obama’s strong support for abortion and said it would turn off millions of pro-life Catholic voters.

“So now we know that Obama thinks it was a mistake — biggest mistake he’s ever made in public life — to allow Schiavo’s parents the right to petition a federal court over the withdrawal of food and medical services necessary to save her life," he said.

"Never mind that the vote was merely procedural: it simply allowed the patient’s parents the right to ask for federal review, never guaranteeing a particular outcome," Donohue explained.

Donohue pointed out how the bill had no bearing on any case other than Schiavo’s and explicitly stated that it would set no legal precedent on any other case.

The Catholic pro-life advocate said Obama should have said his biggest mistake was to not support legislation to protect unborn children who survive botched abortions.

“Just as important as what Obama said is what he didn’t say," Donohue said. "He could have taken the opportunity to say that the biggest blunder of his career in public life was his vote to kill a bill in the Illinois legislature that would have provided medical care for infants who survive abortions."

In 2003, while chairman of the Health and Human Services Committee of the Illinois Senate, Obama led the fight to oppose a bill that would have mandated health care for a baby who survived an abortion.

Obama did so even though the bill explicitly said it would not imperil Roe v. Wade, which Obama supports.

"Senator Obama thinks it is none of the federal government’s business to allow doctors to intentionally starve a person to death," Donohue concluded. "Nor is it the law’s business to require doctors to attend to the health care of a fully born baby who has survived an abortion."

"All this from the Minister of Hope."