Pro-Life Groups Respond to Secret Memo With Obama’s Abortion Marching Orders
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
December 15, 2008
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — More pro-life groups are issuing responses to the news that the Barack Obama transition team has posted a memo from leading pro-abortion groups that gives the incoming president his marching orders on abortion.
The memo was supposed to stay under wraps but Obama put it on his web site because of his recent moves favoring more government transparency.
Deal Hudson, a prominent pro-life Catholic writer says the memo should make it clear to any pro-life Obama backers that neither the new president nor pro-abortion groups want any common ground to reduce abortions.
"Anyone who has bought into the myth that Obama is ‘moderating’ his positions should notice that the first section is entitled ‘Steps for the First Hundred Days.’ Groups that have spent millions supporting pro-abortion members of Congress, including Obama and Biden, aren’t in the mood to wait," he writes.
"Nowhere is there any of the pre-election rhetoric about ‘dialogue’ or ‘lowering’ the number of abortions.
Hudson says the proposals would entrench the unlimited abortion policies that currently guide the U.S.
"Taken together, the proposed policies would accomplish three things: 1) treat abortion as a health care right, 2) provide funding for abortions by insurance carriers or the government, and 3) put judges and political appointees in place who will protect the abortion and government-funding from future challenges," he explained.
Hudson also noticed that the pro-abortion policies are couched in less offensive terms — relying primarily on phrases like the "health care needs of women" and "reproductive health services."
Catholic League president Bill Donohue also commented on the memo and said the proposals in it are anti-Christian.
He points out that, in a section on comprehensive sex education, the groups want Obama to revoke funding for faith-based groups and promote only classes and programs that "do not teach or promote religion."
"It also launches a preemptive strike against a yet to be released regulation from the Department of Health and Human Services protecting the religious rights of health care workers. The document recommends that Obama rescind the regulation," Donohue told LifeNews.com.
That refers to a soon-to-be-released HHS regulation revoking taxpayer funding from any state or local government or medical center that forces its staff to participate in abortions.
"Evidently, their passion for abortion rights is so extreme that it eclipses any interest in the religious liberty rights of others," he said.
Donohue says he’s not surprised that leading single-issue groups like Planned Parenthood and NARAL would put forward the memo for Obama to advance abortion. But, he’s disappointed so many religious groups signed on.
Those include the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, Union for Reform Judaism, Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations, Women of Reform Judaism, and Catholic for Choice
“Look for traditional Catholics, evangelical Protestants, Orthodox Jews, and others to come together in an unprecedented way," Donohue explained.
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