President Obama delivered a pillory of pro-lifers in front 1,000 Planned Parenthood supporters today, telling them that efforts to restrict abortion represent an endeavor to “turn back the clock” on women’s progress.
“The fact is, after decades of progress, there’s still those who want to turn back the clock to policies more suited to the 1950s than the 21st century,” he said. “And they’ve been involved in an orchestrated and historic effort to roll back basic rights when it comes to women’s health.”
One would think that in light of Kermit Gosnell’s appalling actions, President Obama would have declined Planned Parenthood’s invitation out of respect for pro-lifers. After all, President Obama isn’t president of “blue states or red states, but the United States,” and so a measure of respect for those of us who disagree with him is not out of line. But I digress.
It never ceases to amaze me the way anti-lifers phrase child murder. It’s not the discriminate slaughter of unborn children, but “progress.” Some progress, ‘eh? Can you imagine the depravity that would consume the United States if liberals could accomplish everything they want? Infanticide, death panels, whatever. Sky is the limit, right?
But what do I know? I want to push the country back to the 1950s. Well, I guess that’s better than transforming the nation into 1940s Germany, ‘eh, Mr. President?
Sifting Reality 
Food for thought: I saw a FB post today of a photo of an unborn baby and it said, “can you save me like you save the trees? PS…It’s Arbor Day. Pretty clever.
Angie
Yeah I’ve seen that on a bumper sticker. You save trees, whales and (something else), won’t you please save me?
Poignant.
Of course, Barry’s idiotic “push the country back to the 1950s” line is a reference to the lie that women were being butchered by the thousands during “back-alley” abortions. I doubt that in the 50’s there were even 1.2 million women wanting an abortion every year, much less having them. I would wager that there were far less women/girls engaging in intercourse (by percentage as well as by number). In that way, I would certainly want to return to the morality of the 50’s. This is not to say that sex wasn’t desired or even practiced by those out of wedlock. But just not to the degree of our “more advanced” society of today. Plus, there was still the proper stigma connected to sexual promiscuity and even more so toward killing the unborn. How exactly is that a bad thing?
Marshall,
I’ve heard that line from anti-lifers many times before, but I reject it immediately. I will not debate the so called “back-alley butcher” scenario because it is utterly irrelevant. If something is wrong then it is wrong regardless of the consequences of prohibiting it. People are killed robbing banks, jacking cars, you name it, but we don’t legalize those actions because society recognizes that criminals are responsible for the consequences of THEIR crimes.
Regardless, the vast majority of maternal deaths from “back-alley” abortions occurred before the advent of antibiotics. In those days, many people died from infection after all sorts of surgeries, abortion included. These days, it’s not a concern in industrialized nations.
Of course, illegal abortion deaths are still a real concern in other places. The numbers are exceedingly high, actually. Haven’t you seen the Guttmacher report? I implore you to read it – and read it carefully. It only reports those deaths in third-world countries that lack proper medical treatment and antibiotics. So it’s a quasi bait and switch. The summary reports a high percentage of maternal death from illegal abortion, but once you get to the meat of the report, you realize they’re only reporting third-world countries that have high rates of maternal death – period! They won’t talk about Ireland because the percentage of illegal abortion deaths is almost zero. No. Instead they’ll point to nations whose people live in mud huts and defecate near their fresh water supply. They won’t be intellectually honest because doing so does not add to their narrative.
Anti-lifers are nothing but damn liars. They’re the most disgusting, awful people on the face of the earth.
We have legalized abortion and we still have back alley butchers. Grosnell is just one we know about, how many more are there?
Angie
There’s no way he’s the only one, abortion is too sacred.
There’s an awesome story in the Weekly Standard about this guy. What he did was perfectly legal except for one technicality. Apparently under PA law, he needs another doctor’s opinion that the “health” of the mother was at risk. We all know that “health” requirement includes emotional health not just physical health so it’s just an easy test to meet. He didn’t get that second opinion. I think we need to start calling abortions that occur after viability (around 24-26 weeks) what they really are…. infanticide.
The guy is a monster. I’ve read accounts that in court while the details of when babies were fully delivered and killed he was seen smiling.
My views on abortion are not very lenient. While I would love for 24-26 week abortion to be considered murder or infanticide, I believe it is accurate to classify all elective abortions to be such.
Gosnell is just the outworking of the demand for abortion. People want to be not pregnant and he delivered.
I’m the same way, John. I’m not lenient – at all. The only abortions that should be legal are those PHYSICALLY NECESSARY to save the life of the mother.
Obama really isn’t any different than Hitler.
Glen,
It could be argued that Hitler was smarter and a better leader.