Obama’s pro-choice gaffe

OPINION:

If you blinked, you may have missed it on March 29 when Barack Obama told a town hall audience in Pennsylvania that he didn’t want his daughters to be “punished with a baby.” Mr. Obama: “Look, I’ve got two daughters. … I’m going to teach them, first of all, about values and morals. But if they make a mistake, I don’t want them punished with a baby.” Punished? So those who choose to keep their child are being punished? More than a few moms and dads might take issue with that perspective. As for Mr. Obama, his campaign quickly “clarified” that he believes his children are “miracles.” But Mr. Obama should be reminded — as he has often stated — that words do matter.

The suggestion by his staff that this may have been a mere slip of the tongue doesn’t hold water when you look at his record. Just last year, Mr. Obama voted against a ban on partial-birth abortion — when even a majority of Democrats opposed the horrific procedure. Then Mr. Obama criticized the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the ban. In addition, the question asked at the town hall meeting had to do with sexually transmitted disease and teens. It was Mr. Obama who awkwardly offered the link between STD’s and abortion.

On its face, there isn’t a problem with Mr. Obama expressing his pro-choice stance when you consider that he appeals to left of the Democratic Party. But the “unifier” has made a point of opening his arms to Republicans and independents who wish to support him. In one more bit of irony, Mr. Obama was recently endorsed by pro-lifer Bob Casey, a Senate Democrat. Until this recent gaffe, many analysts suggested that Mr. Casey would help Mr. Obama win over some of the state’s white, socially conservative, blue-collar workers in the upcoming April 22nd primary.

Some pro-life activists want Mr. Obama to reconsider his stance in light of the disproportionate number of black babies aborted. In an interview with Cybercast News Service the Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson, founder and president of the non-profit Brotherhood Organization of a New Destiny, said: “Abortion is genocide. It has had a greater affect on the African American community than slavery itself. For Barack Obama to support abortion shows a lack of love for the black community and especially for the unborn.”

So much for unity, Mr. Obama.