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by Kelli and Jill
Yesterday in the Politico, Carrie Budoff Brown wrote on the increase in “anti-abortion recruitment” since Barack Obama became President:

The first hint of a stir came just after Election Day, when the computer servers at Americans United for Life crashed. People were swamping the Web site to sign a petition urging… Obama to stand firm against abortion.
“I got a call from one of our guys, ‘We have a problem,’ ” said Charmaine Yoest, the group’s president and CEO….

Obama’s first 84 days in office have been like an extended recruiting drive for the anti-abortion movement, reinvigorating a constituency he sought to neutralize during the campaign. Activists report a noticeable spike in activity as Obama moves to defend and expand… abortion – causing anti-abortion voters to mobilize in ways never needed during the Bush administration. So far this year…

  • The Susan B. Anthony List says its supporters sent more anti-abortion-related letters, e-mails and faxes to Obama and lawmakers in the first quarter alone than during each of the last two years.
  • The American Life League reported a 30% uptick in donations over last year.
  • PA Sen. Bob Casey Jr. an anti-abortion Democrat who campaigned vigorously for Obama, has received more mail on abortion than on any other issue in 2009, spokesman Larry Smar said.
    Activists have sent more than 100k postcards urging Casey to oppose the Freedom of Choice Act….

  • More than 261k people have signed an online petition calling on Notre Dame to withdraw its invitation for Obama to speak at… [its] May 17 commencement….
  • And AUL plans to expand its plans to expand its staff in Washington and, after the post-election crash, recently upgraded its computer system to handle the bump in online activism.

    • Why?

    It’s no surprise that Obama supports abortion rights. What’s been surprising to these groups is a quick succession of policy and personnel moves by Obama as president -moves they say belie the words of Candidate Obama, who pledged to change the national conversation about abortion….
    The series of decisions started with Obama’s move soon after taking office to lift federal funding restrictions on overseas family planning groups. Later, he moved to repeal Bush-era conscience protections for medical professionals. And his stem-cell decision angered groups that consider it tantamount to ending a human life, because the embryos must be destroyed to retrieve the cells.
    But his personnel moves also have caused alarm. Health and Human Services nominee Kathleen Sebelius fought attempts to dial back abortion rights as Kansas governor. Obama’s communications director Ellen Moran previously ran EMILY’s List, which backed women candidates who supported abortion rights. Obama’s pick to run the powerful Office of Legal Counsel inside the Justice Department, Dawn Johnsen, was previously legal director for NARAL in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

    So Obama attempted window-dressing…

    The White House took steps earlier this month to shift the narrative. Obama’s chief domestic policy adviser, Melody Barnes, assembled a conference call to kick off its abortion reduction initiative, asking for examples of successful local programs and announcing plans to hold a series of meetings on the issue.
    Obama also has appointed at least 4 religious leaders to the Council on Faith and Neighborhood Partnerships who oppose abortion….
    These steps haven’t mollified the right, where the intensity is strongest. But even some moderates, who have been far less critical of Obama, acknowledge concern in their ranks….
    To be sure, anti-abortion voters were never going to support Obama wholeheartedly, but because he worked hard during the campaign not to play up his differences with them, any signs that they are mobilized could cause him trouble down the road.
    Obama won the Catholic vote in November, and did better among Protestants than 2004 Democratic nominee John Kerry.
    In a poll released last week, Obama’s disapproval ratings among Catholic and Protestant voters rose between February and April, but it was consistent with an increase in dissatisfaction among all voters. The fluctuation among white evangelicals was more severe, according to the survey by the Pew Center for the People and the Press. A 31% disapproval rating in February jumped to 47% in April, making it one of the steeper spikes among demographic groups…

    Recall Politico reported NotreDameScandal.com had received 261k petition signatures opposing Obama’s appearance at ND…

    And some moderate anti-abortion advocates stand by Obama. Catholics United and three other groups started an online petition in support of Obama at Notre Dame that already has received more than 33k signatures.

    And then there’s Kmiec…
    Douglas Kmiec… who crafted the Catholic case for Obama in 2008, echoed the sentiments of progressives last month while defending his continued support for the president.

    “So the political antagonists of the president can ‘call me out’ if they want,” Kmiec wrote in response to questions from the U.S. News and World Report blog “God and Country.”
    “Though I think their time would be better spent seeing the larger picture of the economic and related cultural challenges which face the nation and how the president brings great intelligence and open-mindedness to the needs of many who previously were invisible to the governmental process.”

    Oh, really?
    [HT: Kristina H.; photo courtesy of BuyersRemorse.org]

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