Should partial birth abortion be a political issue?

Question

Shortly after the Supreme Court’s decision last

year upholding the constitutionality of the ban on

partial birth abortions, Obama spoke at a Planned

Parenthood conference in Washington, D.C. Condemning

the court’s decision, he said that it was part

of “a concerted effort to steadily roll back” legal

abortions.

Criticizing Justice Anthony Kennedy, who wrote

the majority opinion in the case, Obama said, “Justice

Kennedy knows many things, but my understanding

is that he does not know how to be a

doctor.”

Of course, Kennedy’s job is not to be a doctor, but

to be a judge. And in doing so, he included in his

opinion testimony of a nurse who participated in a

partial birth abortion procedure:

“The baby’s little fingers were clasping and

unclasping, and his little feet were kicking. Then the

doctor stuck the scissors in the back of his head, and

the baby’s arms jerked out ...The doctor opened up

the scissors, stuck a high powered suction tube into

the opening, and sucked the baby’s brains out ...

Now the baby went completely limp. He threw the

baby in a pan, along with the placenta, and the

instruments he had just used.”

Thus the end of what, for Obama, was “potential

life.”

Nat Hentoff, no conservative, but a libertarian

who writes for the “Village Voice,’’ calls Obama the

“infanticide candidate.”

In a recent column, Hentoff noted that, while in

the Illinois State Senate, Obama voted against the

Born Alive Infant Protection Act. This Act addressed

cases where, during an abortion procedure, the live

infant was actually born. The Act would have

banned killing the living child.

Answer 1

well abortion is killing murdering and that is sad i think we should as a country should stop abortions period they are murdering our kids.

Answer 2

I don't understand why women think it's an issue only affecting their bodies.  

Of course this is a political issue.  Why can't I do drugs?  It's my body.  Why do I have to wear a seatbelt?  It's my body.  Why can't I commit suicide?  It's my body.

Answer 3

Abortion, like terrorism, has been a loooooong term practice. From herbal abortions to chemical, to physical. There is no way to stop it if there is an idea.

Answer 4

Well, really your point here is only about partial birth abortions, and while I agree with you, I really only agree past the third trimester, before that is iffy.  To be frank, developmental processes are difficult to assess, and since children develop in the womb at different rates we can not be entirely certain that every child in this group is without congnisense.  All we can be assured of is that those that need an abortion will be allowed to get them that late in the game.  You can talk all you want about the people that exploit it, it doesn't make a difference.  The fact of the matter is that for many reasons abortion is important.

Why am I saying all this?  I'm not going to try to defend Obama, he can do that well enough on his own.  Instead, I will simply explain that the process of cutting back on abortions is infinitely regressive.  Once people decide that one kind of abortion before the third trimester is decided against, it allows similar actions to occur at other stages.  It's less about the fact that any one stage will be rejected, it's that pretty much everyone lines up on 1 of the 2 sides of the abortion issue.  Either they are entirely against it, or entirely for it.  And because of that, there can be very little agreement, and no middle ground.

Answer 5

Considering that we are voting for people that are supposed to protect life and the rights involved with living, this is absolutely a political issue.

Answer 6

Of course it should be! To be honest ALL abortion should be a political issue. Abortion is murder and should be acknowledged as such, and by NO means should we allow it under the rock of "choice".

Answer 7

This is a good topic, but you should format it better. Spaces between paragraphs, links to sources, etc.

EDIT: In my opinion, ANYONE who would support partial-birth abortion is anti-human, and deserves nothing but our contempt.

Answer 8

No--it should be illegal.

The reason we have the overly permissive laws on abortion is due entirely to the attempts by the religious right to force their views on everyone else, however. And no, that is NOT a typo. let me explain. And bear with me--this takes a couple o fparagraps

Christian teaching for almost 2000 years ws that the soul entered the body at "quickening"--about the end of the first trimester. (check with the works of Thomas Aquinas). The current heresy  that a fetus is a person at "conception" promoted by the religious right was in fact invented by them in the 19th century.  It's not a Christian teaching and never was.

Now--that's the standard Roe v. Wade followed--and tey did not "legalize abortion--it was already legal in a number of states. but Roe did not allow  abortions after the first trimester (if you don't believe me--go red the majority opinion. I have).

Now--there are extremists on the left as well as the right. and some of them built on Roe to progressively liberalize abortion law to the point there were no restrictions at all, to all intents and purposes.

They were able to do this for one reason--they were able to discredit the opposition.  The loud voices of the religous right claiming to be the "only true Christians" and demanding that Roe be overturned--instead of addressing the issue of post-first trimester abortions--effectively meant there was no effective opposition to the radical left in the courts. So they won--time after time.

Now----the openly stated intent of the religious right to use any gains in restricting abortion as  means of whittling away at ANY abortion rights continues to discredit them.

The situation we now have is that the radical left and  the religious fanatics on the right have so polarized this issue that any politician --right or left--can't take a middle ground.  They are labeled either "pro-life or pro-choice."  No one will let them be anything else.

The reason why this is the religious rights own d**n fault? Simple--you CAN make a good constitutional case for restricting abortion after the first trimester.  And no one is going to listen to it until the religious fanatics drop their extremist agenda. No one is going to give them that foot in the door.  

The real irony? If they were really Christians, and actually promoted the Christian tradition on this issue (instead of trying to pass of their heresies as "fundamentalist Christianity")--there would be no issue-and no post-first trimester abortions, either.

Answer 9

no one cares but abortion nuts... and it's not like they were going to vote Obama anyway...

you can yell and put tape on your mouth all you want... but in the end... those who care... care, and those who don't... don't...

and the battle lines are pretty firmly drawn...

don't think this will be an issue that influences a lot of votes that weren't locked in already... so, it's basically a non-issue

Answer 10

It should be, but society is so warped it wouldnt matter. Gone are the moral people who built this country! Savages are on the rise and their simple ways are overpowering the righteous!

Answer 11

No.

Answer 12

Yes because I want a leader who will say no to this barbaric act.

Answer 13

Saying the government shouldn't limit partial birth abortions & induce delivery abortions because you don't want all abortions to be illegal is like saying you won;t limit the sale of rocket launchers because you don't want the common citizen to be denied the right to have a small handgun to protect their home from criminals!

It is a bogus agrument!

Answer 14

No, it shouldn't be. Nor should it be in the purview of judges. It's a decision between a woman and her doctor.

Answer 15

yes it should.the name "baby born alive act"pretty much says it all.your born alive,somebody sucks your brain out .you have been murdered.it doesn't matter if your 40 minutes old or 40 years.your brains are removed against your will you have been murdered.we all  need to take a picture of our child or niece or nephew into the voting booths with us this year.when asked why state obamma voted to abort living breathing babies just like my _______.i look in her/his face to remember the living children that were murdered  by obammas voting against the baby born alive act.

Answer 16

I think that the type of woman who would have a partial birth abortion should have the right to destroy it.

People like that have no business having children anyways, and would only raise that child in their own image.  (Endless cycle)

In nature, the strongest survive.  Therefore I think the weak part of society should be able to remove their spawn from humanity.

Of course it's wrong, but you can't get that through the thick heads of feminists.

Answer 17

Well sometimes the choice is weather to save the mother or the child.Either way someone will die. So no the courts shouldn't  be the one that chooses. The Dr. should & the woman.Hopefully they wold find out they need to have it before it's a "partial birth"

Answer 18

Yes, it should be.  It is MURDER.  There is no other way to describe it.  

Now, I do think that in cases of incest, rape, or if the mother is going to die, there should be abortions allowed.  And even then it is horrible.  

I just think the women that are wanting to keep all forms of abortion legal are the ones that can't seem to keep their legs together.  If you are too lazy to buy a condom or take a form of birth control, DON'T HAVE s*x!!!  It is that simple.