A daily struggle is being waged for the hearts and souls of evangelical voters who have become a very significant voting block in recent elections.
Here is how the argument goes for Obama supporters: Obama will receive a significant share (one commentator estimated as high as 45%) of the evangelical vote because young evangelical voters are now more concerned about caring for the poor and justice issues other than abortion.
Really. There are a lot of fluid voting blocks at this time as witnessed by the recent primary contests. Women voters, blue collar voters, Catholic voters, and yes — perhaps — evangelical voters. But it’s hard to imagine that evangelical voters who are some of the staunchest right-to-life voters in the country will suddenly — within a short time span of four years — turn their backs on the unborn.
Obama didn’t help matters by picking a fight with Dr. James Dobson, the revered head of Focus on the Family. It is laughable to imagine that Obama has more expertise on the bible — duh– than Dr. Dobson.
As the dust settles closer to the election, a sizeable block of voters, including those who are evangelical, will look deeply at the abortion issue and see what Obama cannot hide, no matter how hard he tries. He is without question the most pro-abortion individual to ever run for president.
For the fourth time in a row, the legalization of euthanasia and assisted suicide has been averted in the state of California. The California Catholic Conference, Catholic Healthcare West and a coalition of pro-life and disability rights groups under the umbrella of Californians Against Assisted Suicide worked overtime to stop the pro-euthanasia bill.
Here’s what happened. During the last week of May, the California Assembly had passed a bill (by just two votes) that mandated that medical professionals give a patient information about the option of terminal sedation if the patient is diagnosed with a terminal illness or has one year to live. Terminal sedation is the practice, rarely used and only when the patient is imminently dying, of sedating a patient to unconsciousness to relieve pain.
But there’s a problem with terminal sedation. If you terminally sedate a patient who isn’t dying, you end up terminating the patient by withholding food and fluids so the patient dies of starvation and dehydration instead of their illness.
The authors of the bill were the same California legislators who failed to get assisted suicide legalized in the past two legislative session. They turned to this ’stealth” initiative and promoted it as hospice care.
After receiving countless calls and e-mails from California citizens in opposition to the bill, the sinister parts of the bill were removed. Bill May of Catholics for Common Good said, “They removed starvation and dehydration as a medical option. They removed mention of rarely used palliative sedation that renders a patient unconscious.”
Congratulations to the coalition of organizations for this tremendous victory!
Last week we wrote about Catholic professor Doug Kmiec’s delusional assertion that Barack Obama is pro-life. And, of course, we said “hogwash” in response to Kmiec’s ridiculous distortion of Obama’s position on abortion.
We weren’t the only ones that were appalled by what Kmiec had to say. Leading Catholic columnist Deal Hudson has just written a national editorial saying that pro-life Catholics should reject Obama because of his radical pro-abortion positions. He says that Kmiec and others are confusing Catholic voters. And Hudson is right. Obama has a 0% right-to-life voting record and consistently opposes policies to restrict or end abortion and that’s the truth!
Hudson said Kmiec and other Catholic backers will try to gloss over Obama’s pro-abortion views by saying McCain is too wrong on other political issues the Catholic Church doesn’t consider as important as protecting unborn children.
Hudson said, “Their strategy is obvious: Obama’s Catholics will do everything they can to avoid the infanticide question.”
What exactly is the “infanticide question” Hudson is referring to? When Obama served in the Illinois Senate, he twice voted against legislation to provide appropriate medical care to late-term babies who had survived abortion attempts. And on a third occasion, Obama used the power of his committee chairmanship to prevent the legislation from reaching the Senate floor for a vote. The issue was not abortion — it was infanticide — of born living, breathing babies.
For Hudson, the final straw was Obama’s promise to Planned Parenthood that he would sign the Freedom of ChoiceAct into law during his first week in office. This legislation would make legalized abortion a national law but it would also undo all state and federal laws that restrict abortion — laws that protect taxpayers from paying for women’s abortion, laws requiring parental consent prior to a minor’s abortion and many others.
Hudson says it’s “difficult for Catholic supporters of Obama to keep a straight face when talking about a culture of life” and he urges Catholics to reject their disingenuous rhetoric. Obama, he says, is so out of line with Catholic teaching on abortion that he can’t be supported for president.
It was a sweetheart deal, gone awry, thanks to quick action by a local right-to-life group in Sarasota, Florida. Planned Parenthood bought land to build a new abortion clinic. Local zoning rules required that a residence be built at the back of the lot. Since PP is not in the construction business, it sold the land to Habitat for Humanity for $10.
Unfortunately for PP, the right-to-life group got wind of the deal and barraged Habitat for Humanity with emails protesting this unholy alliance. Because of the outpouring of opposition, Habitat for Humanity International urged its Sarasota affiliate to say “no deal.” So, it’s off. And Planned Parenthood loses. How sweet it is.
Not satisfied with being the largest abortion provider in the nation, Planned Parenthood is now building mega-clinics in major cities like Houston and Denver. PP also has “express centers” in shopping malls which offer items for sale appealing to young people — and things like pregnancy tests, of course, with the inevitable referrals to PP abortion clinics. The centers also carry political buttons and promote political activism.
Two mega-clinics have been built with five more in progress. PP has two dozen of the shopping mall stores.
The Wall Street Journal carried a major article on the PP cash cow seeking more outlets in its June 23 issue. According to author, Stephanie Simon, PP executives say “they are ‘rebranding’ their clinics to appeal to women of means — a move that opens new avenues for boosting revenue and, they hope, political clout.”
Think of how many voters PP can sign up using our tax dollars which are included in the almost $1 billion annual revenue it already collects.
According to Simon, PP recently changed its mission statement from “reproductive self-determination” regardless of income to “leverage strength through our affiliated structure to be the nation’s most trusted provider of sexual and reproductive health care.” Spoken like the corporate conglomerate PP is evolving into. Oh — and they’re also working to become “green.”
Ironically, other abortion providers have the same complaints of local businesses who have to close their doors when Wal-Mart comes to town.
The reality of the news media being “in the tank” for Planned Parenthood makes its love of Barack Obama pale in comparison. Thanks to National Right to Life News for documenting the number of lawsuits, reported nowhere in the mainstream media, piling up against Planned Parenthood affiliates for botched abortions. Here’s the tally:
Michelle Marie Perreira filed suit against Planned Parenthood of Los Angeles in April 2007 alleging they had intimidated her into completing an abortion after she withdrew her consent.
The mother of Edrica Goode filed suit in June 2007 against Planned Parenthood of Riverside, California following the death of Edrica from toxic shock after seaweed dilators were inserted to expand her cervix in preparation for a second trimester abortion. The suit alleges that the dilators spread a vaginal infection throughout her body.
A wrongful death lawsuit was filed against Planned Parenthood of Los Angeles in February of 2002 after Diana Lopez died as a result of hemorrhage due to cervical perforation following her abortion.
An unidentified Ohio teen sued Planned Parenthood of Southwest Ohio alleging that employees failed to notify authorities after she disclosed she was a victim of incest when she sought an abortion in November of 2004. Because no report was filed, the teen suffered another year and half of sexual abuse from her father.
An unidentified woman sued Planned Parenthood of Alabama on behalf of her child who suffered injuries after the child survived an abortion attempt in June of 1999.
Lorraine Thul filed suit against Intermountain Planned Parenthood in March of 2004 alleging that the abortionist perforated her uterus during a May 2002 abortion.
The parents of Holly Patterson named Planned Parenthood Golden Gate in a lawsuit after the teen allegedly received the abortion drug RU 486 there in September of 2003 and died less than a week later of massive infection.
The family of Hoa Thuy Tran sued Planned Parenthood of Orange and San Bernadino Counties along with the U.S. marketer of RU 486 saying she was not given warnings of risk or infection before dying of a rare infection in December of 2003, six days after the administration of the drug at Planned Parenthood’s Costa Mesa clinic.
Polls abound these days, signifying that there must be something important happening — like a presidential election. While polls provide just a snapshot of thought at the time the questions are asked, some ideas and issues have staying power in the minds of voters. Abortion is one of them.
I truly find it a grand testament to the work of the right-to-life movement that 35+ years after legalization, abortion remains an important issue of our times, present in the minds of the electorate.
Here are some findings from recent polls:
*62% of Americans will use abortion as a factor when they consider who they will back for president. 11% who identify as pro-abortion voters indicate the candidate must share their views. 15% who identify as pro-life voters say the candidate must share their views. This gives the pro-life candidate a 4% advantage. (Gallup poll conducted May 8-11, 2008)
*Abortion is the fourth most important political issue in the presidential race among younger voters between the ages of 18 and 34. (Virgin Mobile poll conducted at the end of May 2008)
*62% of young Americans between the ages of 17 and 29 say abortion should not be permitted or more strictly limited. 58% of adults agreed. (New York Times, CBS News and MTV poll conducted in June 2007)
*71% of Americans want abortion to either be illegal or limited to rare circumstances. (Gallup poll conducted in May 2008)
It’s our job this year, more than ever, to give the public information on candidate positions on right-to-life issues in not only the presidential race, but the critical races in our state legislature.
Here’s the latest from Oregon, the only state that has legalized assisted suicide and which is continually showcased as a model for how to go about crafting a law. The main spin of the proponents of assisted suicide is that we can allow people to “die with dignity” and protect them by establishing “safeguards” to eliminate abuse.
Not so fast on the safeguards. Barbara Wagner of Oregon tried to fill a prescription for a drug to treat her lung cancer. Payment for her prescription was denied by the Oregon State Health Plan. But, they informed her in their written response that they would cover her palliative care — including assisted suicide!
Wagner was stunned. “To say to someone, we’ll pay for you to die, but not pay for you to live, it’s cruel,” she said.
July 3 is the magic date when proponents of “I 1000″ in Washington State have to submit 225,000 valid signatures to place a measure to legalize assisted suicide in that state on the November 4 ballot. Of course, “I 1000″ mirrors the law with supposed “safeguards” now in effect in Oregon. And, much of the funding for the initiative has come from — you guessed it — Oregon.
In Great Britain, a woman seeking assisted suicide has won an initial court request which forces British prosecutors to state whether they would charge the woman’s husband with assisted suicide for accompanying her to Switzerland where the deadly act would take place.
A British film entitled “I made it look like they died in their sleep” forced filmmaker Jon Ronson to examine his own position on assisted suicide which he now opposes. Assisted suicide advocate George Exoo, the subject of the film, claims that he has been involved in 102 suicide deaths. Most of his victims were not even terminally ill, many needing psychiatric help for depression.
Exoo explains to Ronson that “I’m always careful and I always work quietly, like the Lone Ranger. I do so generally at night and for the most part I make it look like they just died in their sleep. I’ll prop a book up on their lap so it looks like they just expired.” An assistant trained by Exoo says, “George sees it as a calling. There’s a big difference there. For me, it’s No Cash, No help.” She charges $7,000 for an assisted suicide.
Self-described pro-lifer, Douglas Kmiec is a Catholic professor who is feebly and pathetically trying to spin the impossible yarn that Obama is so compassionate that he is basically pro-life. Well, that’s the tallest tale yet.
Let’s try to follow Kmiec’s logic, or lack thereof, from an editorial he wrote for the Chicago Tribune. Kmiec claims that Obama wants to discourage abortions “despite the distortions of some who think if they affix the ‘pro-abortion–won’t overturn-Roe label’ to the senator, pro-lifers like myself won’t give him the time of day.” Kmiec claims “Obama shares a common aspiration to reduce the incidence of abortion.”
Wow! No wonder the pro-life Kmiec was bowled over by Obama’s rhetoric. If only it were true. Kmiec conveniently forgets that Obama will only choose judicial nominees that give a thumbs up to Roe, that he told Planned Parenthood his first act as president would be to sign the Freedom of Choice Act which would nullify all state laws that restrict abortion, and that Obama supports continued partial-birth abortion.
But, here’s the most pathetic part of Kmiec’s article. Kmiec admits that “Obama will not exclude abortion from medical coverage.” So, using Kmiec-logic, offering free abortions at taxpayer expense is magically going to reduce the number of abortions. It’s the most distorted spin yet!
Does the Obama National Advisory Council of prominent elected officials who are Catholic still exist? Who knows?
In May of this year, a number of Catholics, including our own Governor Jim Doyle, signed a letter to Bill Donahue, President of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, expressing their outrage that Donahue had called them “dissidents” for supporting Obama. Why are they “dissidents?” Because all are rabid supporters of abortion who support a rabidly pro-abortion candidate — not exactly in line with Catholic church teaching.
Other signers were Governor Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas who is often mentioned as a potential VP candidate and Fr. Michael Pfleger who is now a household name after his Hillary rant in Obama’s recently-disavowed church blared into our consciousness and our living rooms.
In their letter, Doyle, etal., claim that “we view abortion as a profound moral issue.” Right. They continue: “Senator Obama recognizes that abortion presents a profound moral challenge….Obama has also reached out to Americans on both sides of this issue and embraces practical proposals designed to reduce the number of abortions…”
Like Obama wanting all of us to pay for abortions through our tax dollars. Free abortions — that will bring those numbers way, way down, don’t you think? Just ask the people in Minnesota where court-ordered taxpayer funding for abortions pays for 4,000 abortions each year and keeps Minnesota abortion numbers way higher than Wisconsin where we don’t pay for abortions.
The National Advisory Council was formed to provide Catholic outreach for the Obama campaign. Donahue asked that the group be dissolved and now reports that all reference to this council has magically disappeared from the Obama website. Calls to the campaign to learn the status of the council have not been returned. Seems like Donahue was successful in derailing the phony Obama Catholic train.
![[Email]](http://www.wrtl.org/blog/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/email.png)
![[Facebook]](http://www.wrtl.org/blog/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/facebook.png)
![[MySpace]](http://www.wrtl.org/blog/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/myspace.png)
![[Twitter]](http://www.wrtl.org/blog/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/twitter.png)
