I just read Ross Douthat's column in the NYTimes The Democrats’ Abortion Moment where he warns against extending the current Aiken feeding frenzy into a Democratic pro abortion rally in the coming weeks and at the Dem convention. While he says correctly and colorfully that Aiken's now famous comments blended
"superstition, sexism and stupidity"
(sounds like the entire Republican party and alot of centrist dems) Douthat drops a description of Obama as a baby killer because of a vote he made while in the Illinois legislature against the so called "Born Alive" bill. Douthat dredges this up despite the fact that all this was put under a microscope pre election 2008 and Obama's reasons for voting against the sensationally dumb bill where supported by many conservatives who may not even have been pro choice. More below.
Evidence Douglas Kmieac, Catholic, Conservative, Republican who wrote a study pre 2008 election called Can A Catholic Support Him and had this to say
"...this legislation, in my opinion and, I believe, in Senator Obama’s as well, was not aimed at saving lives so much as shaming them. Now, the history of this measure, which is quite convoluted, is being used to suggest that Senator Obama is a proponent of infanticide. This is an outrageous smear..."
The Born Alive Act purported to protect any fetus miscarried during an abortion procedure. Never mind that any doctor would already automatically protect and help any living infant with a steady heartbeat and a real chance of survival at under 3 months that would emerge on the extremely rare case that this would happen. This language sounds horrible, and that is what was intended by the neo cons who crafted the bill.
It was meant to scare then. But Barack was too smart for them and saw the political ploy for what it was, and voted against the Born Alive bill, but did say that
if they would more tightly focus their legislation on viable infants who could in fact be helped, he would sign on
By dropping the non sequitur now Ross Douthat wants to rekindle this dead baby controversy (pun intended).
FYI Ross, Dems are not so dumb as to make this election about abortion when the battle lines in the Stupids war against women have so clearly been drawn.
Bonus. If you want to have a laugh look at the sickening comments under the post in this link from 2008 in this blog post from a conservative supporting Obama with the
Top 10 Reasons he voted against the Born Alive bill