Over at RH Reality Check, writer Dana Goldstein defends Barack Obama's record, specifically his votes on the Born Alive Infant Protection Act while he was in the Illinois legislature.
Goldstein writes:
But BAIPA isn't really about protecting infants; it is anti-abortion rights legislation crafted by the hard right. BAIPA targets the abortion procedure known as dilation and extraction, which anti-choicers have so successfully re-branded as "partial birth abortion." . . .The antis want to redefine these fetuses as "born alive" and require that doctors provide "resuscitation."
Goldstein, how shall I put this-- there is no nice way to say it-- has no earthly idea what she's talking about. First of all, she's not unaware of what happens during a partial-birth abortion-- she defines what it is in her column. Clearly, if an abortionist has stabbed the baby in back of the neck and suctioned out it's brains it is not alive when it comes out. That's the point of a partial-birth abortion: to kill the child literally inches from birth.
The Born Alive Infant Protection Act was crafted to target those instances where a woman's cervix is stimulated during the prep work for a partial-birth abortion and she delivers a living child before the procedure can be completed. Or an abortionist performs an incomplete abortion procedure (whether a partial-birth abortion procedure or not) and the child is born alive. These instances have occurred and, while rare, still need to be addressed. The BAIPA defines "alive" to mean a breathing child or one moving on his/her own.
Goldstein's knee-jerk reaction is just that and the bill was designed to do exactly what it describes-- to protect a child born alive who was destined to die. At that point, the child is no longer a "fetus" subject to Roe v. Wade but a premature infant who has all the rights given to a U.S. citizen--including the right to life-- and needs to be treated accordingly.
Unless Ms. Goldstein is suggesting that abortionists take up performing outright infanticide by allowing these children to die unattended and untreated-- oh, wait that's what was happening that caused the bill to be drafted in the first place.
And yes, Mr. Obama voted against this Illinois legislation twice and, as chairman of the Illinois Health and Human Services Committee in 2003, he once prevented the bill from going to the floor for a vote.
So there you have it folks-- the compassionate Democratic candidate for president and his humanitarian record.
