Posted on 08/16/2008 9:30:20 AM PDT by cpforlife.org
In speech to Planned Parenthood in July 2007, said he would sign Freedom of Choice Act to enshrine Roe in federal law
By Peter J. Smith
WASHINGTON, D.C., February 28, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Barack Obama, the young, dynamic contender for the US Democratic presidential nomination, is continuing to send strong signals to members of his party that he is the strongest anti-life candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination.
At the last Democratic debate before the March 4 primary showdown in Texas and Ohio that could effectively decide the Democratic nominee, both Sen. Hillary Clinton - a fierce abortion supporter who is aspiring to be the first female president of the United States - and Sen. Obama - who is vying to be the first black US president - were asked which votes they would take back in their senatorial careers. Clinton cited her vote for the Iraq war; Obama said his vote for Terri Schiavo.
“It wasn't something I was comfortable with, but it was not something that I stood on the floor and stopped. And I think that was a mistake,” Obama said at the debate. “And as a constitutional law professor, I knew better ... and I think that's an example of inaction, and sometimes that can be as costly as action.”
Obama was referring to his vote in March 2005, when the Senate passed a bill by unanimous consent that permitted Schiavo’s parents and brother to make their case before federal courts to keep their brain-injured daughter alive via feeding tube. Terri Schiavo’s husband Michael, who had guardianship over her while engaged in public adultery with a girlfriend, had a state judge remove her feeding tube, dehydrating her to death, because he claimed she never wanted to live in a so-called persistent vegetative state (PVS).
“Everyone with a disability, or who knows someone with a disability, should be outraged that a potential US president would so callously reject his own action taken in favor of life over death,” Terri's father, Robert Schindler said in a statement released to the press by the Terri Schindler Schiavo Foundation. “Is it so incredulous that a family had the ‘audacity of hope’ to believe its government would care about one profoundly disabled woman? It is a shame that Senator Obama, who claims to embody ‘hope,’ is crushing it for the families of people with profound disabilities.”
Obama has been riding a surge of support and enthusiasm among Democratic voters after having won 11 straight primary contests over Clinton. He leads the delegate count, and now seems poised to take the nomination from Clinton.
However, Obama has been seizing the mantle of the Democratic Party's pro-death wing, where once Clinton held an unassailable position as all-but crowned abortion nominee. Despite the fact that 10 influential feminists and leaders of the abortion movement endorsed Clinton last week, Frances Kissling, former president of the abortion advocacy group Catholics for Free Choice and dubbed the “philosopher of the pro-choice movement”, came out strongly in favor of Obama, saying that he, not Clinton was the better candidate to “complete the social transformation promised by Roe.” (http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/feb/08021910.html)
Obama has an extremely anti-life record that verges into the realm of condoning infanticide, including repeated votes during his career in the Illinois Senate against bills that would have protected babies that survived an abortion. Obama voted against the Born Alive Infants Protection Act numerous times on the basis that it might infringe on women's rights or abortionists’ rights.
“Thanks to all of you at Planned Parenthood for all the work that you are doing for women all across the country and for families all across the country-and for men, who have enough sense to realize you are helping them, all across the country,” Obama told supporters.
In a speech to Planned Parenthood activists in July 2007, Obama made clear that he would sign the Freedom of Choice Act to enshrine Roe in federal law, include Planned Parenthood in a universal health-care scheme, increase funding for sex-education and contraceptives, and select judges in the mold of Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Pro-life advocates may discover that Barack Obama’s rhetorical abilities may make him a more powerful abortion president than the acrimonious Hillary Clinton, who, despite having more political accomplishments as First Lady and a US Senator for the abortion movement, has suffered considerably in the polls in part to her inability to overcome Obama’s charm and oratory skill.
“I am absolutely convinced that culture wars are so nineties; their days are growing dark, it is time to turn the page,” Obama said in July. “We want a new day here in America. We're tired about arguing about the same ole’ stuff. And I am convinced we can win that argument.”
See related coverage by LifeSiteNews.com:
“Philosopher of Abortion Movement” Says Obama A Better Choice than Hillary
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/feb/08021910.html
See transcript of Obamaa’s speech to Planned Parenthood in 2007
http://lauraetch.googlepages.com/barackobamabeforeplannedpar...
Schiavo Foundation Laments Obama’s “Mistake” Comment on Terry Schiavo
http://www.zenit.org/article-21905?l=english
The Congress is a non-judicial body, and most Americans either have enough sense, or know viscerally, that using it in that manner is tyranny.
There are rights that lack a remedy. Mrs. Schiavo's situation AFTER the Florida executive and judicial processes had run their course was one such situation.
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Thank you. I was beginning to take it personally. At the time, I followed Terri’s case closely because I lived in Florida for many years. Under the circumstances, I still believe congress did the right thing getting involved. I feel very sorry for her family who loved her so much. Very sad story indeed.
Yes, it was a tyrannical use of power by the Federal government.
There are rights that lack a remedy. Mrs. Schiavo's situation AFTER the Florida executive and judicial processes had run their course was one such situation.
That is why we have the 10th Amendment!
IMHO, it was a failure by the Flordia Governor that ultimately killed Terri. Jeb failed to protect a dissabled citizen when the court system failed to function properly giving an unauthorized-to-order-a-death-sentence judge powers he must not have in our judicial system. If that isn’t a case for the chief lawenforcement officer of a state to forcefully step in and save an endangered citizen then there is none such. Jeb Bush was/is/will always be a cowardly feckless man. But that’s just my personal opinion, YMMV.
“Jeb Bush was/is/will always be a cowardly feckless man”
I agree and i think in runs in the Bush family .. the way
W. Bush lost eastern europe this week to the New Russian Empire.
Better not ever see a Bush even one hint at wanting to run
for President.
We could have saved our country a lot of problems if we picked Dole in 88 instead of reagan’s lapdog.
On many social issues, I may not be as conservative as some but I am strongly Pro Life and oppose abortion in all its forms.
My problem with the Schiavo case is that it was a far over reach of Federal Powers and provided Terri with protections of the Federal Government that have not been afforded others that were or are in a similar situation.
So, what is it that made Terri more Equal than others in the eyes of the Federal Government?
Should the U.S. Congress intervene in all cases where a family is in disagreement over the continued medical treatment of a family member? If not, why should those people not be afforded the rights under the Equal Protection Clause?
After all, Terri had the right to be the subject of a Special Session of Congress however, there are thousands of people in hospices at this very moment that will not have that same protection.
Nice try though, nice exposure for you ...
And the Man with the Air Pressure Plan thinks THIS was his biggest mistake?
Amen! I am right there with you, my brother / sister.
I am sorry but when I read the Constitution, I do not see where it is granted the power to go into Special Session for the sole purpose of involving itself in personal matters of a private family.
It does not sound like something that a Small Government Conservative would advocate.
But there seems to be very few of us Small Government Conservatives around these days.
That's all I need to read from you. You are obviously clueless on the case - deluded by the death cult.
Are you sure you meant to reply to me? I am entirely pro-life.
This response is not relevant to the case being discussed, because nobody was asking the House and Senate to "resolve family disputes." The purpose of their involvement was to allow a Federal Court to review the case to determine if Mrs. Schiavo's rights were being violated: the type of review which we routinely grant to convicted criminals under sentence of death.
No citizen, as Constitutionalists know, is to suffer the loss of life, liberty or property without due process of law. In this case, a county probate judge (County! Probate! Judge!) ordered a woman's death without ever seeing her, without even a smidgeon of written or otherwise documented evidence that she "wished to be killed," and without considering whether her legal guardian should be an estranged husband who had abandoned her medically and maritally, who has spent down trust funds which were supposed to be used to be used for her support, and who would further profit from her demise.
I personally think that Jeb Bush was derelict in his duty to uphold the Florida Constitution by failing to act to prevent the killing. But while getting a review in Federal court was not the most savvy move tactically, it was not a matter of presumptuous government meddling. Certainly not.
The woman in question had the right to have her intrests represented in court: especially her most fundamental interest, the right to simply go on living.
Nice guy he might be. That doesn't alter his beliefs. Many a nice guy has turned out to be ‘the devil in disguise’.
Nice guy he might be. That doesn't alter his beliefs. Many a nice guy has turned out to be ‘the devil in disguise’.
Yes. I meant to reply to you. I copied your own words. The part about “life support.” That’s where you are off track. Give that a think and get back to me.
Why not keep the Congress in session 365 days a year for the sole purpose of intervening in family disputes?
First off.. who said anything about keeping them in session all year for that?
Second.. do you call murder a “family dispute?”
If a governor can give a reprieve to a convicted murderer, the president can give a reprieve to an innocent woman.
So advocate the Federal Government stepping in to stop a family and doctors from making the decision to pull a family member from life support?
It is a liberal tactic to mischaracterize ... as in ‘for the personal matters of a private family.’ That you do not see the Schiavo case in a broader context than a private matter on the national stage where issues of right to life as unalienable speaks volumes on the state of your deadness. You keep it up and the disgust level will be intolerable. But then, it doesn’t seem to register with you anyway ...
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