Barack Obama Picks Staffer of Pro-Abortion Group as Communication Director

National   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Nov 24, 2008   |   9:00AM   |   WASHINGTON, DC

Barack Obama Picks Staffer of Pro-Abortion Group as Communication Director

by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
November 24
, 2008

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — Barack Obama told voters during the presidential election that he wanted to work with both sides of the abortion debate to reduce the number of abortions. Yet, over the weekend, he picked a top staffer for one of the biggest pro-abortion groups to become his communications director.

The selection of Ellen Moran, the executive director of Emily’s List, to become the White House communications director makes it clear that the only agenda Obama plans to communicate as president is more abortions.

Moran hails from Emily’s List, a group whose sole mission is to regularly spend tens of millions of dollars on promoting pro-abortion candidates for office.

Emily’s List has a policy that it will only support Democratic women who, like Obama, are in favor of taxpayer funding of abortions and oppose any limits to reduce abortions like a ban on the partial-birth abortion procedure.

In her position with Emily’s List, Moran oversees the national staff and charts the overall strategic direction of the pro-abortion group. In fact, Moran twice worked with the radical group during her career.

In 1993, Moran designed EMILY’s List’s campaign staff training program and served as its first director. Moran also oversaw EMILY’s List’s first foray into voter mobilization in 1994

The selection of someone from Emily’s List comes as somewhat of a surprise given the fact that the group worked overtime for Hillary Clinton during the Democratic presidential primary and condemned fellow abortion advocates NARAL when the latter group came out in support of Obama before the primary had concluded.

During the heated campaign Ellen Malcolm, the president of the group, wasn’t so sure whether Obama had the capacity to match Hillary Clinton, whom her group endorsed, in terms of reaching women.

"I don’t think we can answer that at this point," she said at the time. "I think one of the unanswered questions going forward in the primaries is whether or not Sen. Obama can close the deal with these voters."

Malcolm also made it appear she doesn’t think Obama has the ability to win the votes of lower-income voters.

"I think people make these decisions on a very needs-driven basis, and you can see it in the Clinton polling data. The people that really need help from the government are for Hillary," she said in April.

Obama also came under criticism from Ramona Oliver, communications director for EMILY’s List, who complained he is all flash and no substance and that he wouldn’t do as well if he were a woman.

"All of the substance, all of the work, all of the policies, all of the accomplishments probably don’t come off as flashy," she says of the comparison between Clinton’s image and Obama’s.

Emily’s List spent more than 1.5 million for Clinton’s failed campaign and funneled in another $855,000 in contributions from the group’s supporters.

While leaders of Planned Parenthood and NARAL were allowed to speak at the Democratic convention in Denver, neither Malcolm nor anyone else from Emily’s List spoke during the event. Moran’s appointment to the White House communications spot may be designed to help heal any rifts between Obama and Emily’s List.

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