Sunday, October 26, 2008

What Obama has to say about abortion

Do you have 24 minutes? If so, I encourage you to watch this video of Barack Obama's speech to Planned Parenthood on July 17, 2007. For insight into Obama's views on abortion, there's nothing like hearing it from his own lips.



Here I've provided my notes and comments on the first half of the speech. However, please be sure to watch this video for yourself!

2:20 -- The speech gets underway and Obama opens up with what will be a recurring theme: he speaks of his daughters, and wonders what kind of America will they grow up in and whether they will they have "the same opportunities as our sons."

3:00 to 7:00 -- Obama spends four minutes of his 24-minute speech criticizing the Supreme Court decision in Gonzales vs. Carhart. His pro-abortion activist audience was familiar with that case by name; for everyone else, that's the one which upheld the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban three months before his speech.

It's noteworthy that he did not even say the words "partial-birth abortion" while doing so; the closest he came was "medical procedure." Instead, he called it a "federal ban on abortion."

3:35 -- He acknowledges his fear that the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban endangers Roe vs. Wade.

4:15 -- He lambasts the rationale of the majority in the Supreme Court decision and indicates desire to transform the Supreme Court's "attitude."

5:50 -- He says that the issue is "about whether woman have equal rights under the law."

6:10 -- Nearing the end of his rant on the Supreme Court decision, he praises the dissenting opinion of Ginsberg.

7:15 -- Here Obama paints the situation as a struggle in a system that places "the powerful over the powerless." Throughout the speech he also tosses bones to his feminist audience with calculated references to men and women. He's certainly got the class struggle rhetoric down pat, with a style that would probably make Marx jealous.

7:50 -- He talks about putting Roe "at the center" of a lesson plan when he taught Constitutional law, and mentions that he fought in Illinois State Senate against laws restricting abortions. "So you know where I stand."

9:00 -- Here he strikes a tough tone and speaks of a crossroads and the need to go on offense, and says that on this issue "I will not yield and Planned Parenthood will not yield." (Great, we have a 50-50 chance of Planned Parenthood's biggest fan running the White House.)

9:50 -- This is where Obama again demonstrates his mastery of the art of manipulative rhetoric, suddenly turning to cast his opponents as divisive, those who choose the narrowest ground and fight culture wars at home. In contrast, Obama and Planned Parenthood are evidently the uniters.

10:35 -- Now we get more insight into the spooky theme of returning again and again to his daughters in a speech about abortion rights. Obama provides some transparency by explaining that the argument can be won by avoiding "narrow ground" and asking people if they want their daughters "to have the same chances as men," to which he says that even the most conservative will agree. So, we see Obama's strategy for winning popular approval by presenting controversial issues in language calculated to appeal.

11:45 -- He turns his guns on abstinence-only education and equates it to opposing science.

If you watched the video, you saw Obama tell a room full of Planned Parenthood's activists, "you know where I stand." What more is there to say? Obama has made no secret of his unusually broad support for abortion. He is the pro-choice movement's best friend.

Now you too know where Obama stands. It will be sad if any Americans who do not support the cause of the abortion industry fail to realize this and cast a vote against life at a time when abortion has seen increased challenges, and purveyors of the medical procedure known as "choice" fear that Roe vs. Wade's bloody grip on America may be loosening.

Obama intends to make protecting and expanding Roe vs. Wade a priority if he is elected. There is no excuse for any who call themselves pro-life to vote for this man.

No comments: