President Obama has never been shy in criticizing his political opponents. In his latest ad campaign, however, his criticisms seem to be more descriptive of himself than his opponent Mitt Romney.
President Barack Obama has launched a new campaign in Virginia suggesting that Mitt Romney’s views on abortion are too fanatical. An advertisement depicts Mitt Romney saying that the Supreme Court should overturn Roe v. Wade. Above the address for Barack Obama’s website, a caption reads, “Mitt Romney: Too Extreme for Virginia.”
Too extreme? In May, Gallup found that half of Americans identify as pro-life, and polling earlier this year found that 79% of Americans support major restrictions on abortion. Extreme means abnormal. New Oxford American Dictionary defines extreme as “advocating severe or drastic measures; far from moderate.” One can hardly call Mitt Romney’s stance on abortion extreme while much of America agrees with it.
If President Obama wants to address actual extreme views, he should begin with his own. In the pro-choice community, one can often find Americans who claim they would never have an abortion, but believe abortion should be legal. Obama’s views are far from moderate, even among those who support abortion. Let’s take a quick refresher course on some of the president’s own fanatic actions.
Even before his rise as the most pro-abortion president in history, Barack Obama was criticized for his radical views regarding the unborn. In 1997, Obama voted “present” (equivalent to voting against) regarding a senate bill that would prevent gruesome partial-birth abortions. A few years later, Obama infamously was the only Illinois senator to speak against a bill that protected children that survived failed abortion procedures. Apparently, Obama wasn’t concerned about extremism.
Barack Obama’s crusade against the unborn didn’t tone down upon entering the Oval Office. The president immediately surrounded himself with zealous abortion advocates and has consistently refused to cooperate with opposing views. In early 2009, Obama signed an executive order forcing taxpayer funding of embryonic stem cell research. Multiple times, the president has interfered when states have tried to defund abortion providers. President Obama has most recently demonstrated his inability to respect the values of others through the HHS mandate, forcing Americans to fund birth control and abortion-inducing drugs.
The United States’ borders haven’t restrained this abortion agenda. Mere weeks after his inauguration, President Obama forced taxpayers to fund overseas abortion by overturning the Mexico City Policy. The Obama administration spent millions pressuring Kenya to legalize abortion in 2010 and has been praised by the World Health Organization for promoting abortion worldwide. The administration has also sent millions of dollars to UNFPA, despite the organization’s known ties with China’s coercive one-child policy.
Opposing pro-choice peers to deny life to born children? Forcing Americans to pay for abortion at home and abroad? Overturning states’ decisions to defund Planned Parenthood? These are not the acts of a moderate.
President Obama is an advocate for one of the most extreme human rights abuses of our age: abortion. Labeling the overturning of Roe v. Wade as “extreme” is a distraction from the real issue. There is nothing moderate about ending the life of a child. Stopping abortion isn’t extreme; abortion is extreme. President Obama not only accepts this extreme action, but promotes it in more extensive ways than his peers have.
When it comes to abortion, Barack Obama is the true radical. Americans will not be deceived by this campaign. Catchy slogans won’t silence the screams of the countless children losing their lives from President Obama’s pro-abortion agenda. Its impact has been too extreme.
