"A spokesman said Obama voted against the abortion legislation because it included provisions that "would have taken away from doctors their professional judgment when a fetus is viable.

8/10/2004 9:48:00 PM by Jill Stanek - www.illinoisleader.com

Keyes was giving a rousing speech, and I was clapping and chanting "Al-an! Al-an!" with the rest of the crowd, when he began explaining exactly why he decided to run:

What finally caught my eye, however... what finally arrested my attention and forced me to consider whether I not only have the opportunity to oppose [Obama], but the obligation... was when I learned that he had actually, in April 2002, apparently cast a vote that would continue to allow live birth abortions in the State of Illinois.

Unprepared for the moment, I froze and tears welled in my eyes.

As a nurse who witnessed babies being aborted alive, I testified in March 2001 and March 2002 before the Illinois Senate Judiciary Committee, of which Keyes' rival, Democrat U.S. Senate candidate Barack Obama, is a member.

Both times Obama voted against legislation that would define all live born babies as legal persons, and thus protected by the 14th Amendment, even if they were aborted alive and unwanted.

Despite Obama's negative vote, BAIPA passed in committee. Obama voted "present" for it on the Senate floor in 2001 and "no" in 2002.

In 2003, Obama prevented BAIPA from even getting a fair hearing in his capacity as chairman of the Senate Health & Human Services Committee, where Democrat leadership purposefully sent the bill for Obama to kill.

In all, BAIPA has been introduced and failed four times in four years in Illinois, thanks in no small part to Barack Obama.

I now know Obama's mannerisms well, the way he leans back in his chair, thoughtfully rests his chin in his hand, and with Daschle-like softness of voice, skillfully reasons that allowing live aborted babies to die is necessary to protect the rights of aborting mothers and aborting doctors.

Not surprisingly, Chicago Tribune rock star groupies Liam Ford, John Chase, David Mendell, and Rick Pearson reported on all this Monday by doing the Obama Parrot Blah Blah, a new word dance created by the liberal press to idolize Obama when he spins. They dutifully repeated:

But in a half-hour nomination acceptance speech, Keyes said his decision to enter the contest was based on Obama's voting record in the state legislature - primarily a vote against what he termed "live-birth abortion" legislation....

A spokesman said Obama voted against the abortion legislation because it included provisions that "would have taken away from doctors their professional judgment when a fetus is viable." The legislation, which was defeated, would have made it illegal for doctors to let a fetus die if it happened to be delivered alive during an abortion.

Quite simply, Barack Obama is a liar.

Here is the wording to BAIPA, for liberal reporters too busy doing the Obama word dance to research for themselves:

...[T]he words 'person', 'human being', 'child', and 'individual', shall include every infant member of the species homo sapiens who is born alive at any state of development.

[T]he term 'born alive', with respect to a member of the species homo sapiens, means the complete expulsion or extraction from his or her mother of that member, at any stage of development, who after such expulsion or extraction breathes or has a beating heart, pulsation of the umbilical cord, or definite movement of voluntary muscles, regardless of whether the umbilical cord has been cut, and regardless of whether the expulsion or extraction occurs as a result of natural or induced labor, cesarean section, or induced abortion.

Now tell me how BAIPA "would have taken away from doctors their professional judgment when a fetus is viable."

On the national level, President Bush signed BAIPA into law on August 5, 2002. Most people think BAIPA's passage stopped live birth abortion. But it didn't. BAIPA only defines personhood, with implications that all born babies receive equal protection under the law - to receive medical attention, for instance - even if they are not wanted.

Furthermore, federal law only applies to federal statutes, so each state must pass its own BAIPA to impact state law.

Interestingly, for politicians and reporters so dazzled by abortion they can't see straight, the current void in Illinois law allowing live aborted babies to die unaided has applications outside of abortion.

Earlier this year the Illinois Supreme Court reversed the two-time murder conviction of Elizabeth Ehlert, a Palatine resident who killed her newborn daughter at delivery in her Palatine home in 1990.

Ehlert's boyfriend heard the baby cry from the hall, and water was found in the baby's lungs after she was recovered from a nearby creek where the couple dumped her.

But since no one witnessed the delivery, no one could say whether the baby's umbilical cord had been cut - if she was completely separated from her mother when killed - so the Court overturned Ehlert's conviction.

BAIPA in Illinois would protect babies like unnamed Baby Girl Ehlert as well as countless other unnamed aborted babies who die alone in hospital and abortion clinic soiled utility rooms.

On the federal level, BAIPA passed in the United States Senate 98-0. Ultra-liberal Senators like Kerry, Durbin, Clinton, Kennedy, and Boxer voted for it. The latter two even spoke in its favor on the Senate floor.

That means that Barack Obama is to the left of Kerry, now known as our most liberal senator.

What a relief it would be for Kerry to have Obama take his spot.

What a deathly nightmare it would be for Illinois children.

###

Jill Stanek became a leader in the Illinois conservative movement when she fought to stop "live birth abortion" after witnessing one as an RN at Christ Hospital in Oak Lawn. In August 2002, President Bush asked Jill to his signing of the Born Alive Infants Protection Act. In January 2003, World Magazine named Jill one of the 30 most prominent pro-life leaders of the past 30 years. In November 2003, the White House invited Jill to President Bush's signing of the Partial Birth Abortion Ban. Jill continues to press for Illinois to become a state where unborn and newly born babies are safe. Jill is also pro-life coordinator for Concerned Women for America of Illinois and a public speaker around the country.

Return to Platform