A new radio ad is being released today by the National Right To Life Committee. It repeats the baseless and shocking smear that Obama is in favor of allowing infants to die from neglect if the abortion procedure leaves them alive and viable outside the mother's womb.
The facts are these: Obama did indeed vote against a bill that contained language protecting these infants. But
Illinois law had protected these infants since 1975.
The sponsor of the bill himself wrote a letter to the editor stating that those who opposed the bill
did not support infanticide.
Even the law did contain the federal language protecting Roe v. Wade, the bill was opposed by many who thought the bill would have
an adverse affect on Illinois law and precedent.
...the Illinois proposal always had a companion bill. The accompanying legislation, called the Induced Infant Liability Act, would have allowed legal action “on the child’s behalf for damages, including costs of care to preserve and protect the life, health and safety of the child, punitive damages, and costs and attorney’s fees, against a hospital, health care facility or health care provider who harms or neglects the child or fails to provide medical care to the child after the child’s birth.”
Groups that favor abortion rights say that bill would have introduced the possibility that doctors could be sued for failing to take extraordinary measures to save the lives of pre-viable infants, those born so prematurely that they could not possibly survive. As a result, they argue, it is disingenuous of anti-abortion organizations to claim that Mr. Obama was moving to quash only a narrow and innocuous definitional bill identical to federal law.
“I can tell you the sponsors always wanted the entire package of bills, which were introduced together and analyzed together,” said Pam Sutherland, who was president of the Illinois branch of Planned Parenthood at the time and is now the group’s lobbyist. “They never wanted them separated, because they wanted to make sure that physicians would be chilled into not performing abortions for fear of going to jail.”
The way that the lllinois "Born-Alive" law would have "undermined Roe v. Wade" (Obama's words) was not federally, but
in Illinois itself.
Supporters of abortion rights say Obama was right to oppose the 2003 bill, even though it had the same wording as the federal measure. The wording could have had a different effect at the state level, they say, by undermining Illinois' legal precedents on abortion.
Once more, the key is the 1975 Illinois abortion law, which contains language that's similar but not identical to the later bill. The 2003 bill could have affected the way courts interpret the 1975 law, which Planned Parenthood and the Illinois State Medical Society contended could have far-reaching implications.
The groups opposed the entire group of "born alive" bills that were introduced starting in 2001, saying they could ultimately threaten the physician-patient relationship and increase civil liability for doctors.
In 2005, Illinois lawmakers inserted an extra provision asserting that the law would not affect "existing federal or state law regarding abortion." The measure passed without opposition from Planned Parenthood and with the support of groups opposed to abortion.
As the sponsor says in his letter quoted above, after this extra provision backstopping state law was added, the measure was passed unopposed in the Illinois legislature.
Full disclosure: this post was written with the materials provided at Obama's website,
Fight the Smears.
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