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The Obama Debate Every American Should See
Townhallcom ^ | October 8, 2008 | Terence Jeffrey

Posted on 10/08/2008 5:15:06 AM PDT by Kaslin

The most telling debate Barack Obama ever had was not with John McCain but Patrick O'Malley, who served with Obama in the Illinois Senate and engaged Obama in a colloquy every American should read.

The Obama-O'Malley debate was a defining moment for Obama because it dealt with such a fundamental issue: The state's duty to protect the civil rights of the young and disabled.

Some background: Eight years ago, nurse Jill Stanek went public about the "induced-labor abortions" performed at the Illinois hospital where she worked. Often done on Down syndrome babies, the procedure involved medicating the mother to cause premature labor.

Babies who survived this, Stanek testified in the U.S. Congress, were brought to a soiled linen room and left alone to die without care or comforting.

Then-Illinois state Sen. Patrick O'Malley, whom I interviewed this week, contacted the state attorney general's office to see whether existing laws protected a newborn abortion-survivor's rights as a U.S. citizen. He was told they did not.

So, O'Malley -- a lawyer, veteran lawmaker and colleague of Obama on the Illinois Senate Judiciary Committee -- drafted legislation.

In 2001, he introduced three bills. SB1093 said if a doctor performing an abortion believed there was a likelihood the baby would survive, another physician must be present "to assess the child's viability and provide medical care." SB1094 gave the parents, or a state-appointed guardian, the right to sue to protect the child's rights. SB1095 simply said a baby alive after "complete expulsion or extraction from its mother" would be considered a "'person, 'human being,' 'child' and 'individual.'"

The bills dealt exclusively with born children. "This legislation was about preventing conduct that allowed infanticide to take place in the state of Illinois," O'Malley told me.

The Judiciary Committee approved the bills with Obama in opposition. On March 31, 2001, they came up on the Illinois senate floor. Only one member spoke against them: Obama.

"Nobody else said anything," O'Malley recalls. The official transcript validates this.

"Sen. O'Malley," Obama said near the beginning of the discussion, "the testimony during the committee indicated that one of the key concerns was -- is that there was a method of abortion, an induced abortion, where the -- the fetus or child, as -- as some might describe it, is still temporarily alive outside the womb."

Obama made three crucial concessions here: the legislation was about 1) a human being, who was 2) "alive" and 3) "outside the womb."

He also used an odd redundancy: "temporarily alive." Is there another type of human?

"And one of the concerns that came out in the testimony was the fact that they were not being properly cared for during that brief period of time that they were still living," Obama continued.

Here he made another crucial concession: The intention of the legislation was to make sure that 1) a human being, 2) alive and 3) outside the womb was 4) "properly cared for."

"Is that correct?" Obama asked O'Malley.

O'Malley tightened the logical knot. "(T)his bill suggests that appropriate steps be taken to treat that baby as a -- a citizen of the United States and afforded all the rights and protections it deserves under the Constitution of the United States," said O'Malley.

But to these specific temporarily-alive-outside-the-womb-human beings -- to these children who had survived a botched abortion, whose hearts were beating, whose muscles were moving, whose lungs were heaving -- to these specific children of God, Obama was not willing to concede any constitutional rights at all.

To explain his position, Obama came up with yet another term to describe the human being who would be protected by O'Malley's bills. The abortion survivor became a "pre-viable fetus."

By definition, however, a born baby cannot be a "fetus." Merriam-Webster Online defines "fetus" as an "unborn or unhatched vertebrate" or "a developing human from usually two months after conception to birth." Obama had already conceded these human beings were "alive outside the womb."

"No. 1," said Obama, "whenever we define a pre-viable fetus as a person that is protected by the equal protection clause or other elements of the Constitution, what we're really saying is, in fact, that they are persons that are entitled to the kinds of protections that would be provided to a -- a child, a nine-month-old -- child that was delivered to term."

Yes. In other words, a baby born alive at 37 weeks is just as much a human "person" as a baby born alive at 22 weeks.

Obama, however, saw a problem with calling abortion survivors "persons." "I mean, it -- it would essentially bar abortions," said Obama, "because the equal protection clause does not allow somebody to kill a child, and if this is a child, then this would be an antiabortion statute."

For Obama, whether or not a temporarily-alive-outside-the-womb little girl is a "person" entitled to constitutional rights is not determined by her humanity, her age or even her place in space relative to her mother's uterus. It is determined by a whether a doctor has been trying to kill her.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Extended News; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 2008; abortion; democrats; elections; frontpage; nobama08; obama; obamatruthfiles; obamatruthsquad; prolife
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1 posted on 10/08/2008 5:15:07 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin
"nurse Jill Stanek went public about the "induced-labor abortions" performed at the Illinois hospital where she worked. Often done on Down syndrome babies, the procedure involved medicating the mother to cause premature labor.

Babies who survived this, Stanek testified in the U.S. Congress, were brought to a soiled linen room and left alone to die without care or comforting."

And here is Jill Stanek Kill and Destroy
This is very sad, but true.

2 posted on 10/08/2008 5:21:33 AM PDT by repinwi
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To: Kaslin

The man is truly a barbarian....


3 posted on 10/08/2008 5:22:20 AM PDT by phs3 (Call a terrorist a freedom fighter, I call you the enemy.)
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To: phs3

bookmark


4 posted on 10/08/2008 5:25:39 AM PDT by SuzanneC
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To: Kaslin

Abortion is murder without charges, except for the ACLU. They charge the government plenty.


5 posted on 10/08/2008 5:27:13 AM PDT by Invictus
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To: Kaslin

bump


6 posted on 10/08/2008 5:28:15 AM PDT by XHogPilot
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To: Kaslin

Does anybody have video of this thing?


7 posted on 10/08/2008 5:28:23 AM PDT by gridlock (The Democrats have attacked Motherhood. If they attack Baseball and Apple Pie, we got it made!)
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To: Kaslin

Der Furher decided who lived and died in old Germany. The Dear Leader will do the same in modern America. And so will his judges. Get ready.


8 posted on 10/08/2008 5:28:43 AM PDT by Bulldawg Fan (Victory is the last thing Murtha and his fellow Defeatists want.)
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To: Kaslin

Aren’t we all temporarily alive? Well, except for those ‘there can only be one’ guys.


9 posted on 10/08/2008 5:31:37 AM PDT by ClaudiusI
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To: phs3
The man is truly a barbarian

It is beyond my understanding how any person who calls himself or herself a Christian or a Jew could vote for him, those groups constitute the huge majority of voters in this country and yet he is on the verge of becoming President.

10 posted on 10/08/2008 5:40:22 AM PDT by Graybeard58
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To: phs3
The man is truly a barbarian....

A man who would spill a baby's blood for the mother's ease would spill anyone's blood for anything.

11 posted on 10/08/2008 5:40:39 AM PDT by polymuser (Taxpayers voting for Obama are like chickens voting for Colonel Sanders)
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To: All

I don’t know if Obama is “the” Anti-Christ. I do however know that he is just as evil. This is not a time to be civil with those who disagree with us politically. This is the time to vanquish evil. I implore those of you who don’t like McCain to read this and do whatever you must to help destroy O’s campaign. If this article isn’t enough to convince you how important this election is, then nothing is ever going to change your mind.


12 posted on 10/08/2008 5:55:04 AM PDT by Maverick68 (w)
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To: Kaslin

These are the kinds of Obama’s thinking that would have been brought out and shown to the public had we not had the majority of the msm in his pocket!
This man will probably be POTUS!! That is totally disgusting!


13 posted on 10/08/2008 6:03:41 AM PDT by Cricket24 (Just one of those Conservative women!)
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To: Maverick68

Sick!

Sick!

Sick!

Sick!

Sick!

Sick!

Sick!

Sick!

Sick!

Sick!




14 posted on 10/08/2008 6:04:13 AM PDT by An American! (Proud To Be An American!)
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To: Kaslin

save for later reading


15 posted on 10/08/2008 6:25:38 AM PDT by HollyB
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To: Kaslin

mark


16 posted on 10/08/2008 6:37:23 AM PDT by Christian4Bush (Country First*****McCain/Palin 08*********vs. CountryWIDE First [obama and the donks])
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To: Kaslin

Infuriated beyond words BUMP.


17 posted on 10/08/2008 6:53:07 AM PDT by JDoutrider (Pray for our side!)
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To: Kaslin

bttt


18 posted on 10/08/2008 7:00:52 AM PDT by Lexinom (That one voted for it!)
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To: Kaslin

This man is evil.


19 posted on 10/08/2008 8:48:12 AM PDT by gura (R-MO)
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To: repinwi

I hope all freepers send this video and Jeffrey’s column around to all national and local conservative TV and radio talk show hosts, friends and opinion leaders.

This man and his agenda must be stopped.

“A nation that kills its children is a nation without hope.” John Paul II


20 posted on 10/08/2008 9:33:20 AM PDT by victim soul
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