About ten days ago we were having a national discussion about Barack Obama’s abortion positions. Along with his Saddleback performance, the issue was regenerated when tapes of his Illinois Senate floor debate, along with the transcript, surfaced.
One of the issues that Obama raised as onerous in the “born alive” bill, was having a second doctor involved to determine the viability of the child.
From the transcript, Senator Obama discussing the need for a second doctor:
So — and again, I’m — not going to prolong this, but I just want to be clear because I think this was the source of the objections of the Medical Society. As I understand it, this puts the burden on the attending physician who has determined, since they were performing this procedure, that, in fact, this is a nonviable fetus; that if that fetus, or child – however way you want to describe it – is now outside the mother’s womb and the doctor continues to think that it’s nonviable but there’s, let’s say, movement or some indication that, in fact, they’re not just coming out limb and dead, that, in fact, they would then have to call a second physician to monitor and check off and make sure that this is not a live child that could be saved.
Further on, Obama adds:
…an additional doctor who then has to be called in an emergency situation to come in and make these assessments is designed simply to burden the original decision of the woman and the physician to induce labor and perform an abortion.
(Emphasis mine in both quotes)
A couple of things to note:
First note in the first quote that Obama is so far left on the abortion topic that he is unable to refer to a live baby as a “baby.” Abortion extremists are loathe to refer to anything other than the birthling of a fully desired pregnancy a “baby.” Giving anything other than this the term “baby” undermines their intent to keep anything unborn as nothing more than an inanimate object. Calling it a “baby” undermines their desire to keep all abortion options open at all times.
Second, if you want some insight as to how Obama will handle Ahmadinejad, take another look at that first quote. Obama didn’t even have the cojones to take a stand on whether they were discussing a fetus or a baby. He completely sidestepped the issue. Can you imagine him taking to Ahmadinejad? “I’d like to discuss your nuclear weapons or freedom tools, however way you want to describe them.” On the plus side, this may be the first core issue I’ve seen Obama hold to; he claimed it was above his paygrade to determine when life began, at the Saddleback debate and he had the same opinion back in 2002!
Third, this second doctor issue is a complete canard. When a premature birth occurs, it is very typical to have not only a second doctor, but a second medical team involved in the event. The obstetrician stays with the mother while the second doctor and team attend to the premature infant. In the event of a failed abortion what do we have? A premature infant! So if that is already typical procedure in most hospitals, why would that be onerous in this case? The answer to that is yet another quote from Barack Obama:
…that’s fine, but I think it’s important to understand that this issue ultimately is about abortion and not live births.
That last quote says all anyone needs to know about Obama’s position on abortion…it’s always about abortion, never about life.
