Political Hay
Obama’s Phony Health Exception
The Democratic nominee’s unhealthy support for abortion on demand.
John McCain took Barack Obama to the pro-life woodshed during the final presidential debate in mid-October. It was a long over-due thrashing and a welcome respite from an otherwise snoozer of an interchange. It’s caused the mainstream media and liberal blogosphere to have collective conniptions, meaning the Arizona senator got dangerously close to tender territory that the pro-abortion movement would rather avoid.
McCain’s cardinal sin began when he brought up two of Obama’s votes in the Illinois Senate — the first against a born alive infant protection act, the second against a state-level partial-birth abortion ban. In the latter case, Obama responded that he would have supported the ban if it had contained an exception for the mother’s health. (Obama also threw in a point about finding “common ground” on abortion, which apparently looks like this).
McCain responded that the health exception has been “stretched by the pro-abortion movement in America to mean almost anything.” The remark was accurate, but the Left wasted no time in pouncing on McCain’s position and particularly his use of “air quotes” in referring to women’s health.
MSNBC commentator Chris Matthews (who appears to have become the networks go-to “straight news” reporter, along with Keith Olbermann) said that McCain made “a big mistake” on the issue. “You can’t belittle the health exception with regard to abortion,” he said.
The liberal blogs took it even further. In a post entitled “Dear John McCain,” one self-proclaimed “foul-mouthed liberal” blogger wrote, “You really are a small-minded anti-choice hater of women … F**k you, Senator McCain.”
Of course, most of the pontificating missed the key issue: how have the courts defined the health exception for late-term abortions? Does it “mean almost anything,” as McCain said?
We already know where Planned Parenthood and other abortion advocacy groups stand. Abortion should be legal through all nine months of pregnancy, for any reason. That’s in contrast to the latest opinion polls on the topic. The vast majority of Americans favor at least some restrictions on the procedure.
What about the courts? As McCain correctly stated, the health exception has been interpreted broadly. In Doe v. Bolton, a decision handed down the same day as Roe v. Wade in January 1973, the Supreme Court ruled that the “medical judgment may be exercised in light of all factors — physical, emotional, psychological, familial, and the woman’s age — relevant to the well-being of the patient. All these factors may relate to health.”
That’s the kind of vague language to which McCain referred. In this instance, the issue is not about abortions performed to save the life of the mother or because of life-endangering health risks. Americans support abortion options in those situations. Rather, it’s about a broadly defined meaning of “health” that places the convenience of the living above the life of the unborn.
Abortion advocates gloss over that fact because it doesn’t poll well. Americans oppose abortions for convenience. Yet Doe leaves the door open for late-term abortions for a host of reasons, including convenience. If bringing the unborn child to term would emotionally harm a woman, she can have an abortion. If her family situation is unstable, she can have an abortion. If having a child would cause psychological stress, she can have an abortion. No limits.
That, by the way, is why pro-life lawmakers refused to insert a health exception in the federal partial-birth abortion ban. Under Doe, it would have made the ban meaningless since a woman would only have to prove emotional or psychological stress to qualify. Does that outweigh the life of the unborn child?
That was McCain’s premise. The disagreement is not over health hazards, but convenience. Unfortunately, the point got drowned in a deluge of abortion industry sound bites calling him a woman hater, a tactic the pro-abortion movement thrives on. Anyone who questions the health exception is demonized as anti-woman, yet abortion advocates shy away when asked to define exactly what health means.
If the courts defined the exception to apply only when a pregnancy poses serious or life-threatening health risks, I doubt McCain would quibble. But abortion advocates won’t stand for that. In contrast to the beliefs of the majority of Americans, their support is for unequivocal abortion-on-demand, and the phony health exception is a key underpinning.
Funny how the health of the 25 million (or so) unborn females who have been aborted since 1973 never factors into the argument.
About the Author
David N. Bass is a journalist who writes from the Old North State. Follow him on Twitter.
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Tamara| 10.23.08 @ 1:26PM
My question is simple. If a woman's health is TRULY threatened by a late term pregnancy why would a doctor not simply deliver the baby and at least give it a CHANCE? If the mother doesn't want the baby there are people lined up waiting to adopt. Why does the child have to be killed?
The answer to my question is simple too. Any woman who carries a wanted child into the third trimester and is then faced with a REAL life-threatening illness doesn't "choose" abortion; she "chooses" to give her baby at least a fighting chance to live. It's women who just need an excuse to kill a viable baby for their own convenience and selfishness because they didn't make up their mind about an abortion during the first trimester who carry out what in any sane society would be considered infanticide.
This "all or nothing" attitude towards abortion needs to stop. The "right to lifers" and the "pro-choicers" must recognize that abortion will always be with us, but that legal abortion must be limited to the first trimester. Killing babies who are obviously able to live outside their mother's womb is unconscionable. Civilized societies don't sacrifice children to the secular gods of selfishness and convenience.
Ben | 10.23.08 @ 2:15PM
Why don't Catholics be quiet and mind their own business?
http://www.catholicvote.com/
Tamara| 10.23.08 @ 7:34PM
This isn't about imposing religion on anyone, nor is it about early abortion or birth control.
These are all issues that muddy the one that should be central in everyone's mind: Barack Obama doesn't recognize murder when he sees it; and he's compounded this failing by trying to explain it away with outright lies.
What more should anyone need to know about this man?
Scrapiron| 10.24.08 @ 12:50AM
Any Catholic, Jew, or Christian who plans to vote for Hussein should resign from church and burn their bible prior to going to the polls. You aren't following the bible if you follow Hussein and his 'born alive, murder the live baby cult, so quit being a hypocrite. A hypocrite being seen in church won't help you in the after life. I'll voice that opinion to one and all and anyplace.
Acai | 1.31.09 @ 3:55PM
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Personal Checks | 3.27.09 @ 3:33PM
I think if a doctor feels a patient will not survive if the baby goes to term or vice versa, then why not deliver early rather than abort. I do feel that abortion needs to be limited to a certain amount of time unless the baby poses a medical threat to the mom and then the baby could be delivered rather than aborted.
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frozen shoulder | 4.9.09 @ 7:37AM
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Acai Berry | 4.28.09 @ 7:10PM
Tamara said it best; this has never been a black & white issue and I'd say that EVERYONE wants to punish people killing their unborn children out of convenience... So why can't we all just see that there really is no conflict here??
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ED | 5.17.09 @ 1:59AM
Kind of a moot point now, but neither side wants the issue "solved." It provides too much ammo during the election cycle.
Found another issue worth talking about too: teen impotence.
acaiberry | 5.18.09 @ 7:33AM
I like your post. Its really informative. But i can't understand why Catholics mind their own business?
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Beccy2345 | 6.19.09 @ 4:47PM
Abortion rights have always been a polarising issue in US politics. I don't feel that Obama has his pulse on the nation's thoughts though on this issue. The recent murder of the abortion doctor just empahsises that fact. Toronto Real Estate Agent
Beccy2345 | 6.19.09 @ 4:48PM
Abortion rights have always been a polarising issue in US politics. I don't feel that Obama has his pulse on the nation's thoughts though on this issue. The recent murder of the abortion doctor just empahsises that fact. Toronto Real Estate Agent
Toronto Real Estate Agent | 6.19.09 @ 4:51PM
Abortion rights have always been a polarising issue in US politics. I don't feel that Obama has his pulse on the nation's thoughts though on this issue. The recent murder of the abortion doctor just empahsises that fact.
Acai Berry | 7.27.09 @ 4:38AM
I do feel that abortion needs to be limited to a certain amount of time unless the baby poses a medical threat to the mom and then the baby could be delivered rather than aborted.
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I don't feel that Obama has his pulse on the nation's thoughts though on this issue. The recent murder of the abortion doctor just empahsises that fact.
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I don't feel that Obama has his pulse on the nation's thoughts though on this issue.
Colon Cleanser | 8.29.09 @ 4:49AM
Well, I don't feel that Obama has his pulse on the nation's thoughts though on this issue. The recent murder of the abortion doctor just empahsises that fact.
Acai Berry | 9.14.09 @ 1:45PM
I don't feel that Obama has his pulse on the nation's thoughts though on this issue. The recent murder of the abortion doctor just empahsises that fact.
Karen S| 2.1.10 @ 7:17AM
I agree that the vast majority of Americans favor at least some restrictions on the procedure.
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Bowtrol Review | 3.22.10 @ 4:39PM
I think Obama plan sound awesome.I really do!
Resveratrol Healthblog | 4.12.10 @ 3:17PM
Then when the "unborn child" is born into all these inconvenient circumstances, or abandoned, or just raised in an unhealthy environment, is up to the government to provide for that too.
massagistas | 1.7.11 @ 10:49AM
yea, or Christian who plans to vote for Hussein should resign from church and burn their bible prior to going to the polls. You aren't following the bible if you follow Hussein and his 'born alive".... thanks !
Jon R. | 11.29.11 @ 4:56PM
Years later President Obama and his cabinet continue to struggle with this issue as the lines are still divided. There are a huge number of abortions every year, but I still think its a woman's right to have the choice.