Common ground. Prevent. Options. Help. Reduce. These are defusing and calming words. They fit Obama's personality. But more than that, they're pragmatic. They convey action, progress, solution. Obama has been talking about abortion this way all along, when the subject comes up. He doesn't like us-and-them language. He doesn't like fights. Even on this issue—one of the nastiest, angriest, most polarizing topics in modern politics—he looks for a course most of us can agree on. He tries to turn even moral issues into technical issues. . . . The pro-life movement is betting on McCain-style combat. The pro-choice movement is betting on Obama-style pragmatism.Well.
I acknowledge Senator Obama’s elegance when speaking of abortion. But he co-sponsored the odious “Freedom of Choice Act” and has pledged that one of the first things he will do as President is sign it into law. This is hardly the behavior of someone who “doesn't like us-and-them language,” “doesn't like fights,” and “looks for a course most of us can agree on.”
No, FOCA will strip away all the pro-life protections we have carefully built up over the last 30 years. FOCA will strip away “conscience clauses” in abortion-related legislation, forcing pro-life professionals to betray their conscience by participating in the abortion decisions of their patients. FOCA will open the door to federal funding of abortion and close the door on parental involvement in a minor’s decision to seek an abortion. FOCA will free abortionists from having to provide alternatives to abortion before proceeding with the procedure.
Saletan is right that we all want to hear someone provide common-ground pragmatic solutions for this deeply divisive issue. But FOCA just isn’t the way to do that. If you’re pro-life and plan to vote for Obama, please write him and ask him to reverse his pledge to sign this disturbing bill.
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