So-Called Pro-Life Advocates Who Backed Obama Say Banning Abortion Failed

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

So-Called Pro-Life Advocates Who Backed Obama Say Banning Abortion Failed

by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
November 18
, 2008

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — The so-called pro-life advocates who promoted pro-abortion presidential candidate Barack Obama are now saying efforts to ban abortion have failed. They are now working with abortion advocates on efforts to help pregnant women that authentic pro-life advocates have been doing for decades.

Douglas Kmiec, the infamous law professor who was one of the leading Catholics promoting Obama during the campaign, talked with the Washington Post about the next steps.

He’s joining with so-called pro-life groups who backed Obama, like Catholics United and Sojourners, to work with abortion advocates and persuade pro-life advocates to drop efforts to ban abortions because of the Obama victory.

"If one strategy has failed and failed over decades, and you have empirical information that tells how you can honor life and encourage women to make that choice by meeting real needs that are existing and tangible, why not do that?" he told the Post.

However, the strategy to ban or limit abortions legislatively has not failed.

As the Alan Guttmacher Institute, a former Planned Parenthood affiliate, noted in January, the number of abortions is at historic lows.

Research from University of Alabama professor Dr. Michael New shows states that have passed the most pro-life laws to reduce abortions have seen the biggest abortion declines.

And pro-life advocates say that President Bush appointed two Supreme Court justices who will likely vote to overturn Roe v. Wade — making the high court one vote away from allowing states to protect unborn children.

They say Kmiec and his colleagues sabotaged that effort by putting Obama in the White House, where the incoming president has pledged to only appoint pro-abortion judges who will vote to keep unlimited abortions legal another 35 years.

Joe Scheidler, founder of the Pro-Life Action League, responded to Kmiec and said he and the National Association of Evangelicals and others who are urging pro-life advocates to give up on providing legal protection for unborn children are doing a disservice to the pro-life cause.

"It’s a sellout, as far as we are concerned," he told the Post. "We don’t think it’s really genuine. You don’t have to have a lot of social programs to cut down on abortions."

The people and groups involved in the "pro-life, pro-Obama" effort say not enough has been done to provide help for pregnant women.

Yet, pro-life advocates have put together a network of over 3,500 crisis pregnancy centers that have been providing tangible pregnancy assistance to women for decades.

Kmiec and his colleagues appear to take a disingenuous position with regard to helping pregnant women because Obama will likely support a bill that could put some pregnancy centers out of business or place onerous restrictions on them.

Some of the groups involved in the pro-Obama effort are also supporting a bill that would increase the funding for Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion business.

They’re backing the so-called Reducing the Need for Abortion and Supporting Parents Act, sponsored by Rep. Tim Ryan of Ohio and Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, a former NARAL staff member.

As LifeNews.com has previously profiled, Ryan and the bill have come under fire from pro-life advocates because it has become a measure that would likely promote abortions.

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