Pro-Life Group Says Barack Obama More Pro-Abortion Than VP Pick Joe Biden
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
August 23, 2008
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — Joe Biden may be a strong abortion advocate, but the legislative liaison for one pro-life group that closely monitors Congress says Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is worse. National Right to Life says Biden has supported two modest pro-life efforts while Obama has been 100% pro-abortion.
Douglas Johnson, the legislative director for National Right to Life, tells LifeNews.com there is no disputing Biden’s pro-abortion views.
"Senator Biden is a strong supporter of the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade ruling, which mandated abortion on demand," he said. "Biden has not voted on the pro-life side on any issue since 2003."
"He has played a leading role in blocking or trying to block the nominees to the Supreme Court who were opposed by pro-abortion advocacy groups, such as Robert Bork, Clarence Thomas, John Roberts, and Samuel Alito," Johnson said.
Yet, Johnson explained that Biden has supported the pro-life position on three occasions where Obama has not.
"Biden has supported the Hyde Amendment and some other laws to prevent tax funding of abortion, while Obama advocates the repeal of the Hyde Amendment and supports tax funded abortion on demand," Johnson told LifeNews.com.
Biden also sided with the pro-life community on partial-birth abortion in 1999, though he missed some votes for it years later.
"Biden voted for the federal law that prohibits partial-birth abortion, and in April 2007, Biden said ‘I make no apologies for it,’" Johnson said. "But Obama opposes the ban on partial-birth abortion, and expressed strong disagreement with the Supreme Court’s April 2007 action in upholding it."
Biden and Obama also contrast on the Born Alive Infants Protection Act — a measure that has received significant medical coverage of late.
The bill requires medical personnel to provide proper medical care for newborns who are purposefully born prematurely or survive botched abortions.
While Obama said he would have voted for the federal version of the bill that Biden voted for, he opposed an Illinois version when he served in that state’s legislature.
"It is also noteworthy that in 2001, Biden voted for the language of the federal Born-Alive Infants Protection Act, which recognizes babies who are born alive during abortions as legally protected persons, while Obama killed a virtually identical bill in the Illinois State Senate in 2003," he said.
Although Biden is unacceptable on pro-life issues, Obama’s picking him makes it clear yet again that Obama is perhaps the most radically pro-abortion presidential candidate since Roe v. Wade in 1973.
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