One of President Obama’s frequent refrains is that Americans need
to come together on the abortion issue. Unfortunately, he’s done
nothing to make that happen.
At his controversial Notre Dame commencement address, Obama
talked up drafting “a sensible conscience clause” and ensuring
“that all of our health care policies are grounded in clear
ethics and sound science, as well as respect for the equality of
women.”
It’s an approach close to the one pushed by pro-choice
politicians for decades — keep abortion safe, legal, and rare.
Let’s look for common ground, they say, and agree to disagree on
the rest.
If that’s Obama’s standard, why has he opposed even the most
common sense pro-life legislation? From partial-birth abortion
bans to parental consent laws, Obama and his pro-choice allies
have done their best to block and impede anything and everything
pro-life, including the most low-level restrictions.
One of the most glaring examples is a bill in
Congress that would require abortionists to give women a
chance to see an ultrasound image of their unborn child prior to
an abortion. The measure doesn’t compel women to view the image
— it simply provides the option.
House liberals, those alleged champions of free choice, have
obstructed an up or down vote on the bill. If abortion supporters
truly seek common ground with pro-lifers, what better place to
start than by giving women more information to make a
better educated decision about the fate of their unborn child?
An ultrasound bill would aid Obama’s goal of making abortion less
common, since research indicates that women are more likely to
choose life when they see an image of their child in the womb.
But it’s precisely because the bill would reduce
abortions that liberals oppose it. Their goal isn’t to cut down
on the number of procedures, and never has been. Rather, it’s to
ensure that abortion-on-demand is uninhibited.
That attitude is in contrast to the prevailing viewpoint of the
American people. A widely publicized
Gallup poll in May found that, for the first time since
Gallup started the poll in 1995, a majority of Americans identify
as “pro-life.”
Even more damning, a Harris
survey from late 2008 found that 88 percent of respondents
favored providing women with information on the procedure and
alternatives prior to an abortion. Requiring abortionists to make
available an ultrasound image would tally with that goal.
For all his speechifying about the importance of science, Obama
is an anti-science advocate when it comes to
ultrasounds. As a Fox News article
suggests, one of the reasons more Americans view themselves
as pro-life might be thanks to ultrasound technology, which
presents a window into the womb unimaginable when the U.S.
Supreme Court concocted a constitutional right to abortion in
Roe v. Wade.
In other words, popular opinion is changing thanks to scientific
advancement. Specialists today know more than ever about how
unborn life develops. Given the opposition of social leftists to
any ultrasound bill, it appears they’re wishing these new
technologies had never been developed.
If the president wants to extend an olive branch to the other
side, what better way than to back legislation that would help
women make a better-informed choice? Looking at Obama’s record in
the Illinois Senate and, later, United States Senate gives a
solid answer. Aside from a few rhetorical bones thrown to
pro-lifers, Obama has never made an effort to find concrete
common ground on the issue. Just the opposite, in fact.
Even on pro-life bills that a significant majority of Americans
support — such as a ban on partial-birth abortion and
protections for infants born alive after botched abortions—Obama
has sided with the most extreme pro-abortion lawmakers.
If that’s common ground, I’d hate to see the other thing.
