This is my first diary here, mercy please. I decided I had to weigh in on the next non-"issue" that we'll be hearing about in the traditional media's effort to tear down Barack Obama. They're going to try and paint him as a baby-killer-and I'm not referring to the traditional Evangelical epithet when talking about those who are pro-choice.
We all know about the anti-abortion crowd's efforts to drive wedges and obfuscate facts with emotions. You know, so called "partial birth," stem cell research, etc. Now, the "born-alive" issue is rearing its ugly head again, and of course started on Fox Noise. Normally you'd expect such an inane accusation to stay within the confines of its target audience, but it appears to be gaining traction with actual media outlets.
Now, on the surface this has me worried. "He wants to kill babies! I can't support a guy like that!" But, if it's explained properly and quickly (hopefully with the help of people smarter than myself,) I think the convention and the general absurdity of the topic will help it taper off. In short, as was law at the time, doctors could terminate a pregnancy in the second trimester via artificial delivery, ONLY if a severe abnormality that would have prevented pregnancy is found. Occasionally, those fetuses could stay alive for up to an hour, but would otherwise perish. We're not talking about kids that would have otherwise become kids.
While in the Illinois State Senate, Obama repeatedly opposed a bill that would have designated any of those fetuses as legal people, with full legal rights.
You can see where he was coming from on this. It was a transparent attempt by the anti-abortionists to get their foot in the door on the road to reversal. Eric Zorn goes very in depth on the subject, and I highly recommend his article.
We need to try and nip this bone-headed issue in the bud before it gets diluted by the powers that be.