The Quiet Conservative May 18, 2009
The President at Notre Dame
From the President's speech where he addresses abortion:
"...The question, then -- the question then is how do we work through these conflicts? Is it possible
for us to join hands in common effort? As citizens of a vibrant and varied democracy, how do we
engage in vigorous debate? How does each of us remain firm in our principles, and fight for what
we consider right, without, as Father John said, demonizing those with just as strongly held
convictions on the other side?
And of course, nowhere do these questions come up more powerfully than on the issue of abortion.
As I considered the controversy surrounding my visit here, I was reminded of an encounter I had
during my Senate campaign, one that I describe in a book I wrote called "The Audacity of Hope." A
few days after I won the Democratic nomination, I received an e-mail from a doctor who told me that
while he voted for me in the Illinois primary, he had a serious concern that might prevent him from
voting for me in the general election. He described himself as a Christian who was strongly pro-life
-- but that was not what was preventing him potentially from voting for me.
What bothered the doctor was an entry that my campaign staff had posted on my website -- an entry
that said I would fight "right-wing ideologues who want to take away a woman's right to choose."
The doctor said he had assumed I was a reasonable person, he supported my policy initiatives to
help the poor and to lift up our educational system, but that if I truly believed that every pro-life
individual was simply an ideologue who wanted to inflict suffering on women, then I was not very
reasonable. He wrote, "I do not ask at this point that you oppose abortion, only that you speak about
this issue in fair-minded words." Fair-minded words.
After I read the doctor's letter, I wrote back to him and I thanked him. And I didn't change my
underlying position, but I did tell my staff to change the words on my website. And I said a prayer
that night that I might extend the same presumption of good faith to others that the doctor had
extended to me. Because when we do that -- when we open up our hearts and our minds to those who
may not think precisely like we do or believe precisely what we believe -- that's when we discover at
least the possibility of common ground.
That's when we begin to say, "Maybe we won't agree on abortion, but we can still agree that this
heart-wrenching decision for any woman is not made casually, it has both moral and spiritual
dimensions.
So let us work together to reduce the number of women seeking abortions, let's reduce unintended
pregnancies. (Applause.) Let's make adoption more available. (Applause.) Let's provide care and
support for women who do carry their children to term. (Applause.) Let's honor the conscience of
those who disagree with abortion, and draft a sensible conscience clause, and make sure that all of
our health care policies are grounded not only in sound science, but also in clear ethics, as well as
respect for the equality of women." Those are things we can do. (Applause.)
Now, understand -- understand, Class of 2009, I do not suggest that the debate surrounding abortion
can or should go away. Because no matter how much we may want to fudge it -- indeed, while we
know that the views of most Americans on the subject are complex and even contradictory -- the fact
is that at some level, the views of the two camps are irreconcilable. Each side will continue to make
its case to the public with passion and conviction. But surely we can do so without reducing those
with differing views to caricature.
Open hearts. Open minds. Fair-minded words. It's a way of life that has always been the Notre Dame
tradition. (Applause.) Father Hesburgh has long spoken of this institution as both a lighthouse and a
crossroads. A lighthouse that stands apart, shining with the wisdom of the Catholic tradition, while
the crossroads is where "differences of culture and religion and conviction can co-exist with
friendship, civility, hospitality, and especially love." And I want to join him and Father John in
saying how inspired I am by the maturity and responsibility with which this class has approached
the debate surrounding today's ceremony. You are an example of what Notre Dame is about.
(Applause.)
So smooth. So reasonable. The President simply is asking to meet on common ground. Catholics
rush to agree. When given the choice between Christ, the Church, the sanctity of human life, and the
solid pro abortion stance of President Obama, they went with Obama.
Human life begins at conception. Repeat that. Human life begins at conception. One more time:
Human life begins at conception. If there is any other definition the leader of the free world,
constitutional lawyer, and Ivy League graduate, isn't coming up with one. He isn't going to respond to
any question about it either. Rick Warren had the last shot at that question and Mr. Obama showed
that there was no way he would answer the question truthfully.
So all reasonable minded people who want to get along simply have to find common ground with the
murder of innocent babies. That is what the President is asking. The President stated that he had his
people change the language on his web site during the campaign-"right-wing ideologues who want to
take away a woman's right to choose." because he wanted to make it sound better. He didn't change
his mind at all, he still wants to kill babies, but he doesn't want to seem rude about it. He doesn't want
to demonize the other side and he certainly doesn't want to be demonized in return.
"Maybe we won't agree on abortion, but we can still agree that this heart-wrenching decision for
any woman is not made casually, it has both moral and spiritual dimensions." What is missing from
the President's thought process? What is the flaw in his character here? What makes the leader of the
free world a monster no different from a doctor who will pull a baby almost all the way out of a
woman and then murder it before the head comes out the rest of the way? Nothing. He never
mentions the object of that "choice": a human being; a baby.
For the talk of the difficulty in a "moral and spiritual dimension" what in the world can that difficulty
be? If the baby isn't a human being with a soul and rights and life, then what possibly could be the
moral and spiritual dimension be? Do you weep for a fibroid tumor that is removed? Do you suffer
spiritual malaise when you have your tonsils out? The President is a smart man, the press tells us so.
What could he be referring to if it isn't to the killing of an unborn person?
How do you compromise with the willful murder of an innocent human being? Where is the middle
ground there? Instead of 1.3 million murders a year in the US, would it be reasonable to settle for 1.1
million murders? Would Notre Dame and Father Jenkins give the President another honorary degree
for the reduction?
Human life begins at conception. Therefore the right to life begins there too. Those that would murder
have been allowed to redefine the issue to "choice" and have closed any consideration to any other
aspect. The smooth placation of reducing the need for abortion, and doing what we can to reduce
unwanted pregnancies, is just so much disingenuous pap. The government is funding abortion
worldwide now. There is little incentive to reduce it when you actively seek to sponsor it. These were
just words so people who should, and do, know better can lie to themselves over what they are doing.
When a woman goes into Dr. Tiller's clinic in Wichita, he sticks a needle through her abdomen into the
heart of the baby and poisons it. The baby dies. He then sends the mother to a hotel until her body
begins to reject the corpse inside. She then returns to the clinic to deliver the dead baby President
Obama and well meaning self deluding liberals label a choice.
Abortion is a human rights issue. There are those that would allow, promote, pay for, and foster the
right to murder innocent human beings. A shocking number of people who claim to be Catholic are
among them.
There are those who would oppose the murder of the unborn. They recognize that every human life is
sacred and have the inherent life to life given by God and guaranteed to them by the Constitution.
They are the true civil rights champions. They are the true Catholics. They are the true Americans.
There seems to be little common ground between murder and those who would stop murder.
You can claim to be either one. But you cannot change the definition or lie about what abortion is.
You don't, and the President doesn't, have a right to your own version of truth. You cannot ignore,
forget, or lie about what is being chosen. What is being chosen is the murder of a person.
"Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of
our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence." -John Adams
Human life begins at conception. No other definition has ever come forward. Meanwhile, the crowd
at Notre Dame, onetime Catholic University, applauded.