October 6, 2002
IT'S GOOD TO BE THE KING:
Bush confirms antiabortion stance: UN step is signal; foes query timing (Mary Leonard, 10/6/2002 , Boston Globe)Last week, the president shifted $34 million out of the UN Population Fund, which he says coerces abortions in China, and into a USAID program that will distribute it, country by country, for the health of children and mothers.Kenneth Conner, president of the Family Research Council, said it was ''bold and decisive'' to deny the family-planning funds, even as the administration was pressing the United Nations for a resolution to act against Iraq.
''I think the president has taken some significant steps that affirm his desire to help refashion the culture of life in which every child is welcomed in life and protected in law,'' said Conner, whose group advocates a constitutional amendment to ban abortion.
The administration made the UN move days after it had set a policy allowing states to provide health insurance to ''unborn children,'' designating a fetus as eligible for government benefits. Abortion rights groups say this is aimed at undermining the Roe v. Wade decision, which found that women have a qualified right to terminate pregnancies. Administration officials say their goal is to advance prenatal health care.
Last month, the White House strongly endorsed a bill passed in the House that permits hospitals and insurance companies to refuse to perform or to pay for abortions without losing their Medicare eligibility or other federal funding.
Brother Murtaugh has asked several times why conservatives support President Bush when he's done nothing for them. Even setting aside tax cuts, unilateralism, free trade and all the other stuff that gets our engines racing, this article does a nice job of showing why having a conservative President matters. There are just myriad things he can do under the radar, in his role as executive, to advance conservative positions. Posted by Orrin Judd at October 6, 2002 12:14 PM
I agree that this is going in the right direction, as it were, on abortion, but compared to, say, sponsoring a new ban on partial birth abortion, it's pocket change. Because the issues you mention fly under the radar, but for the fact that pro-abortion groups notice them and get free rein to portray them in the most distorted light possible, it's debatable whether they even impact the debate positively for the pro-life side.
Posted by: Charlie Murtaugh at October 6, 2002 1:51 PMI believe Partial Birth has passed in the House and Daschle, who nominally supports it, is preventing it from coming to a vote in the Senate because it will pass there too.
Posted by: oj at October 6, 2002 5:20 PMWhat I find humerous is the headline -- "Bush confirms antiabortion stance ". It's as if Bush's position re: abortion hasn't been crystal clear to partisans on both sides of the issue.
Or maybe the Globe thinks that the Democrats are going ballistic over Bush's judicial nominees for the hell of it.
P.S. Wouldn't it be nice if the major media, practicing truth in labeling, start calling those in favor of abortion "pro-abortion"?
Rick Santorum (R-PA) Urges Senate Action On Partial Birth Abortion
(Traditional
Values Coalition, October 03, 2002)
Sen. Rick Santorum held a press conference on Wednesday to urge Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD) to allow Senators toPosted by: oj at October 7, 2002 1:14 PM
vote on legislation to ban the horrendous practice of partial birth abortion (PBA).
Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA), Tim Hutchinson (R-AR), and Sam Brownback (R-KS) held a press conference on October 3, to urge Senate passage
of the Partial Birth Abortion Ban (PBA) [...]
Even many pro-choice Americans agree that PBA is a barbaric process that should be outlawed. Pro-choice Members of the House of Representatives
even voted for this legislation, allowing it to pass the House in July by a vote of 275-151.
To read the full text of this legislation, go to: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d107:HR04965:@@@L&summ2=m&