On August 11, 2008, National Right to Life Committee issued a press release which described and documented how Barack Obama’s excuses for voting against an Illinois version of the Born Alive Infant Protection Act were false. The Born Alive Infant Protection Act was a federal piece of legislation designed to provide legal protection to infants who survive abortion. The federal law which passed the U.S. House by a voice vote and was unanimously approved in the U.S. Senate was signed into law by President Bush in 2002. Various states, including Michigan, passed similar measures to ensure that children who survive abortions are given legal protection.
As a state senator in Illinois, Barack Obama opposed his state’s version of this legislation on a number of occasions. In recent years, Senator Obama has claimed he would have voted for the federal legislation because it contained a clause to verify the legislation wouldn’t be used undermine Roe v. Wade.
National Right to Life recently unearthed documents showing that while in the Illinois Senate in 2003, Obama voted against the Illinois version of the Born Alive Infant Protection Act even when the legislation had the clause he claimed the legislation needed in order to receive his vote.
On August 16, 2008, after being asked about his opposition to the Illinois version of the Born Alive Infant Protection Act by David Brody of the Christian Broadcasting Network, Senator Obama claimed “folks are lying” and re-iterated that he would have voted for the federal legislation and that the Illinois version was trying to undermine Roe v. Wade.
On August 18, 2008, the New York Sun published a story in which Obama spokesperson Hari Sevugan acknowledged that Senator Obama had voted against an Illinois bill which was identical to the federal legislation.
For more information about Senator Barack Obama’s opposition to legislation which would have ensured legal protection to infants who survive abortions and his attempt to cover-up his votes, click here.
