Pro-Life Groups Meet With President Obama Faith Staffer on Reducing Abortions
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
March 25, 2009
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — Several representatives of leading national pro-life groups held a meeting with President Barack Obama’s top White House faith office staffer on Tuesday. One participant describes the meeting as polite and cordial, but pro-life groups aren’t expecting much from Obama given his pro-abortion record.
Wendy Wright, the president of Concerned Women for America, came up with the idea of taking Obama at his word that he truly wants to dialogue with pro-life groups.
Wright described the meeting with Joshua Dubois, the head of the White House Faith Based Office, as "cordial" and said he "discussed the focus of the White House Faith Based office and its goal to have measurable outcomes."
"We presented information on programs that are effective in helping women and reducing abortions," she told LifeNews.com.
Wright also said they discussed their concerns with Obama’s plan to rescind the additional protections the Bush administration put in place to protect pro-life doctors and medical centers.
"We discussed the vital role of faith-based professionals in the health care industry," she said.
A doctor who reportedly was pressured to be involved in an abortion was present to present his story. The Obama administration has proposed rescinding the pro-life protections and the public has 30 days to respond to the idea.
Although Obama, through his staff selections, appointments, and other decisions, has developed a hardcore pro-abortion record, Wright told LifeNews.com she hopes Dubois and the Obama administration will take the pro-life recommendations seriously.
"Our perspectives are not ones that we’ve heard represented from this Administration, so we hope that the experience and evidence-based information that we shared will be taken into consideration as they develop future policies," she said.
She said the burden is now on the Obama administration to take what the pro-life groups presented and to fashion policies that actually result in reducing abortions.
The head of the Family Research Council and representatives of the Christian Medical Association and Care Net, a national association of pregnancy care centers, also attended the meeting.
At the meeting, they told Dubois that abortions will not be reduced by sending more money to groups like Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion business.
The meeting came just two weeks after Obama shut pro-life groups out of a discussion on the future of health care policy at a White House summit.
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