Time's Sullivan: Obama, 'Pro-Life President?'

February 6th, 2009 5:56 PM

It would be funny if the subject matter wasn't the destruction of unborn children in the womb. Time magazine's Amy Sullivan asked in a Swampland blog post headline from February 4: "Barack Obama, Pro-Life President?"

Sullivan's evidence? Well, the president has picked a Pentecostal preacher -- who once worked for a New Jersey Congressman with a 100% score by NARAL Pro-Choice America -- to head his faith-based initiatives office and "abortion reduction" is one of the major stated goals of one of the president's advisory boards:

We already know that Obama plans to officially announce Joshua DuBois' appointment to be director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships tomorrow, as well as the unveiling of his newly-formed Presidential Advisory Council of the same name. But I'm told by a religious leader who will be part of the Council that the president also plans to lay out four priorities for the Council. They will include focusing on global poverty (not surprising), the impact of economic recovery plans on low-income Americans (ditto), the faith-based initiative (OF COURSE), and...abortion reduction.

Now that's interesting.

No, what's, interesting, to say the least, is how Sullivan can honestly suggest that the NARAL-endorsed Obama -- who promised to sign a Freedom of Choice Act should it reach his desk -- is pro-life merely because he'd like to see abortions reduced, or, in the words of former President Clinton, "rare, safe, and legal."

You don't have to be pro-life to hope that abortion is "rare," but true pro-lifer advocates do not settle for the notion that abortion shall always or should always sanctioned by the state as a "right."