Catholic Exchange

Catholic League president Bill Donohue speaks to the growing interest in Sen. Barack Obama’s abortion record:

“The pro-life community has been tracking Obama’s support for selective infanticide for quite a while, but only recently has there been a national discussion on this issue. On May 15, I said on ‘Fox and Friends’ that ‘There’s been a media cover-up on this [issue].’ But now the cat’s out of the bag.

“Last night on ‘Hannity and Colmes’ Bob Beckel tried to argue that neither Obama nor NARAL supports the selective killing of infants. Yet the bill that would offer protection to children who survived abortions is precisely what Obama opposed when he was in the Illinois state senate. As for NARAL, it initially opposed the bill when it was introduced in 2000 and then lied about it; in 2002, after it became clear that NARAL had no support from pro-abortion congressmen and senators, it changed its position.

“On July 20, 2000, NARAL issued a news release, Roe v. Wade Faces Renewed Assault in House: Anti-Choice Lawmakers Hold Hearing On So-Called ‘Born Alive Infants Protection Act.’ The news release stated that NARAL was opposed to the bill introduced by Rep. Charles Canady. Yet on October 29, 2000, NARAL’s New York executive director Kelli Conlin told WNBC-TV’s Gabe Pressman that NARAL was not opposed to the bill. I told her on the show that she was ‘an out-and-out liar’ and mailed her and Pressman the evidence following the show. Neither replied.

“It’s quite clear what’s going on: the radical pro-abortionists-and no one is more radical than Obama and NARAL-will even defend selective infanticide if there is one chance in a million that it will chip away at Roe v. Wade. Incredibly, even NARAL eventually dropped its opposition to the bill, something Obama never did (his campaign now admits that the wording of the Illinois bill and the federal bill were virtually identical). Which means that when it comes to abortion, Obama wins the Gold.”