Born Alive Bill Controversy: The 700 Club Story
This morning on The 700 Club I went on the air with a TV piece focusing on the controversy between Barack Obama and the National Right to Life over the Born Alive Infant Protection Act. You can watch the piece above. This was broadcast across the country. It will be replayed tonight at 11pm on the ABC Family Channel. Check your local listings.
Below is the transcript of how it appeared on The 700 Club this morning.
(Anchor Lee Webb)
Barack Obama finds himself answering for a vote he made in the Illinois state senate. It centers on a bill called the Born Alive Infant Protection Act. The National Right to Life committee says Obama is misleading Americans about his opposition to the bill. Obama told CBN’s David Brody the pro-life group is lying. Here’s David with the story.
(Brody PKG)
It's an issue that has dogged Obama since his days in the Illinois state Senate.
The Born Alive Infant Protection Act would have required medical attention for infants born alive during an attempted abortion.
Obama voted against it more than once. Why? Obama says to protect Roe v. Wade and keep abortion legal. But even most abortion rights supporters say Roe wasn't at risk.
The National Right to Life Committee says Obama keeps changing his reasons for opposing the bill.
"We believe that he should come clean and admit that he has misrepresented his vote in the past on this Born Alive Infant Protection Act and that he should apologize to those that he has called liars," said Susan T. Muskett of the National Right to Life Committee.
Indeed, in an exclusive interview with CBN News this past weekend, Obama had harsh words for those questioning his position and vote.
"I hate to say that people are lying, but here's a situation where folks are lying," Obama said.
Let's Rewind to 2000
Back in 2000 a federal version of the Born Alive bill was introduced but defeated.
Two years later, pro-choice lawmakers finally supported the bill because wording was added that protected the legality of Roe v. Wade.
The same fight was going on in Illinois at the state level. There Obama, a state senator at the time, voted against all Illinois versions saying they were different than the law passed by Congress - because they didn't protect Roe sufficiently under Illinois law.
"I would have been completely in, fully in support of the federal bill that everybody supported - which was to say -- that you should provide assistance to any infant that was born - even if it was as a consequence of an induced abortion. That was not the bill that was presented at the state level," Obama said.
That is where National Right to Life makes its case. It has produced a document showing that the same language protecting Roe was indeed in a 2003 version of the Illinois bill. Yet Obama, the chairman of the committee responsible for the bill, still voted against it. The Right to Life Committee believes this discrepancy is part of a bigger issue.
"I think the American people need to know how extreme he is and the role that he played on this," Muskett said.
In a statement to CBN News, the Obama campaign wouldn't address the charge that he has misrepresented his position on this bill. They don't believe it's necessary since there were multiple versions of the bill at different times.
Instead they told CBN News "The suggestion that Obama - the proud father of two little girls - and others who opposed these bills supported infanticide is deeply offensive and insulting. The bills Senator Obama voted against in Illinois were crafted to undermine Roe v. Wade or pre-existing Illinois state law."
So what's the takeaway from all of this? Pro-life groups say Obama is an extremist when it comes to abortion.
They point to the Born Alive vote plus an 2007 appearance before The Planned Parenthood Action Fund where Obama indicated the Freedom Of Choice Act would be the first piece of legislation he would sign as President.
They say that act would effectively wipe out all current federal, state and local restrictions on abortion.
Meanwhile, while the Obama campaign concedes that the language of the federal bill and the Illinois bill are the same, the implications would have been far different in each case. And so they say this is not so cut and dried. Plus they say Illinois state law already had language in place protecting infants born alive
(Anchor Lee Webb)
David, this story has gotten some mainstream media coverage but especially in conservative circles. What’s the potential political fallout here for Obama?.
(Brody Live)
Lee, if John McCain decides to make this an issue publicly then it may have some legs. but McCain has been reticent to bring up social issues like abortion so right now you'll have the McCain campaign team behind the scenes talking up this story and trying to make it fit their narrative of Obama as an out of control liberal. Yes, pro-life groups will continue to hammer away on this bill but part of the problem is that it is not an easy story to tell succinctly. There are layers here.
(Anchor Lee Webb)
Obama seemed pretty heated during that interview. Did you get a sense as to why?
(Brody Live)
Campaign aides tell me privately that the Senator has heard this "infanticide criticism" for awhile now and has been very frustrated by the attacks on his character by some of his conservative critics. They say as a father of two young girls that he would never support something so monstrous. So that was part of the heated response. Lee, it's interesting...what we have seen from Senator Obama so far in this presidential campaign is that he sees nuance in certain issues in that they are not so clear cut. So part of the heated response had to do with how he feels that right to life and others are looking at this the wrong way. Lee...
