Obama and the Illinois Born Alive Protection Act

Barack Obama, who it must be conceded at the outset, is pro-choice, is now caught in a controversy over his role as an Illinois State Senator in a 2002-2003 legislative fight over abortion. It calls into question whether Obama goes even farther than a pro-choice position in the abortion question.

In 2002, President Bush signed into law the federal Born Alive Law, passed by Congress that states that all proper measures should be taken to preserve the life of an infant born out of the mother's womb alive.

In 2002-2003, the Illinois Legislature was considering a similar state law called the Born Alive Protection Act. It was specifically designed to protect the life of an infant who survived the induced labor abortion process and came out of the mother's womb alive. (This process is not uncommon when the fetus is diagnosed as handicapped or deformed.) Obama concedes that he led the drive to defeat the bill, which he believed was in contradiction to Roe vs. Wade. (There was also a companion act called the Induced Infant Liability Act, which contained measures for lawsuits against hospitals or doctors on behalf of the infants.) The bill was defeated by the Illinois Legislature. Obama, who was Chairman of the Health and Human Services Committee in the State Legislature, by his own admission, led the fight to defeat the bill.

This issue goes beyond abortion rights. It calls into question the issue of what is proper procedure when, during an induced labor abortion, the child exits the womb alive.

This issue has been highlighted by Jill Stanek, a Chicago nurse, who testified before Obama's Illinois committee of her own personal experience at a Chicago hospital. A child with Downs Syndrome had been born alive as a result of an induced abortion. According to Stanek's account, hospital personnel dumped the baby, still breathing, into a soiled linen closet. She told of retrieving the infant and cradling it in her arms for 45 minutes until it died. This, according to Stanek, was part of a policy of allowing babies to die who had survived the induced labor abortion procedure.

Obama, in his appearance at the Saddleback Church event just days ago, told Pastor Rick Warren that the question of when a fetus has human rights was "above his pay grade." Apparently, when he was in the Illinois State Legislature, he did not consider the question above his pay grade. He apparently believed then and believes now that a breathing human being that has exited the mother's womb alive during an abortion procedure has no human rights. If, at that point, the mother's wishes to terminate the child's life take precedence, then at what point does infanticide become illegal?

This issue should give abortion rights advocates pause. It should also give Obama supporters pause.