Stanek weekend question II: What questions would honest journalists ask Obama on the abortion issue?
On January 23 CNN’s Piers Morgan interrogated pro-life Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum on his position that there be no abortion exceptions for rape and incest, using an emotional appeal that in my opinion was way out of bounds:
You know, if you have a daughter that came to you who had been raped…. and was pregnant and was begging you to let her have an abortion, would you really be able to look her in the eye and say, no, as her father?
As an aside, Santorum handled the question well, one of the reasons I support him for president.
But journalists never delve into the issue with pro-abortion candidates. Never. If only.
About the disparity Tim Graham at NewsBusters wrote:
This is not a tactic they’ve tried on Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama. Can you imagine a liberal interviewer asking if they would accompany their daughter to the clinic? Or what they would do if the daughter regretted their abortion? No, only the pro-lifers get this hardball.
Peter Heck at American Thinker suggested his own counter-questions for Obama:
Morgan’s disgraceful retreat from sound logic to the manipulative playground of emotion-driven passions is as transparent as it is embarrassing. This question is designed not to reveal any truth in the abortion debate, but rather, it is a tactical scheme made for the cameras in which the liberal questioner puts the conservative respondent in a corner. If Santorum says he would deny his daughter’s pleas, he looks like the cold and heartless goon that Morgan believes him to be. If he says he would relent and allow his daughter an abortion, he surrenders his moral high ground and appears a hypocrite.
And though Santorum answered the question effectively, stating that he “would do what every father must do…try to counsel your daughter to do the right thing,” there’s a greater point to be made here. Liberal politicians never have to answer such outrageous emotionalism in their interviews.
Can you imagine, for example, Barack Obama being called on his condemnation of former President Bush’s advanced interrogation techniques with this challenge: “If Sasha and Malia were kidnapped and were being held and brutally tortured by terrorists, and we captured one of their accomplices who had knowledge of their secret hideout, would you not authorize any force necessary to get your girls back?” Can you fathom the outcry against such a loaded, sensationalized question?
Or compare apples to apples and envision Obama being quizzed by Piers Morgan: “So if you believe that partial-birth abortion is a legitimate medical procedure that violates no moral law, would you be willing to inject the saline into your own daughter’s womb to burn your grandchild alive?” Such outrageously aggressive and offensively personal questioning would have Morgan looking for work within a week.
Heck mixed abortion procedures on his last question. The more appropriate question would be: “If you believe that partial-birth abortion is a legitimate medical procedure that violates no moral law, would you have approved of delivering either or both of your full-term daughters – if Michelle decided that to raise them would pose a mental problem – breech up to the neck, stabbing the back of the neck with a sharp instrument, suctioning her brains out, collapsing the skull with forceps, and delivering her dead?”
Recall ABC’s George Stephanopoulos also pressed weirdly too far on the contraception issue with Republican presidential candidates during a debate on January 7…
I can envision dozens of questions all over the pro-life spectrum that should be asked of Obama, including some on his continued support of Planned Parenthood in the face investigative videos and long-term evidence of institutional malfeasance.
What questions on the pro-life issue do you think President Obama should be asked in a debate?
Jill Stanek is a nurse turned speaker, columnist and blogger, a national figure in the effort to protect both preborn and postborn innocent human life.
I ask him to watch a video of a third trimester abortion with me, and then ask him to explain why he voted against protecting that dead child.
What motivated you to be such a strong abortion advocate?
Why do you want to violate the first amendment rights of Catholics and force your pro-death beliefs on them?
Why are you so intolerant of their religious beliefs?
Why did you say the following in 2009 at Notre Dame when you received your honorary degree:
”Maybe we won’t agree on abortion, but we can still agree that this is a heart-wrenching decision for any woman to make, with both moral and spiritual dimensions.
So let’s work together to reduce the number of women seeking abortions by reducing unintended pregnancies, and making adoption more available, and providing care and support for women who do carry their child to term. Let’s honor the conscience of those who disagree with abortion, and draft a sensible conscience clause, and make sure that all of our health care policies are grounded in clear ethics and sound science, as well as respect for the equality of women.” .
Did you forget you said this? Do you have a medical problem which has resulted in a memory lapse? A stroke perhaps or an early onset of Alzheimers?
Jean – Something someone pointed out to me recently is that Obama always says, “number of women seeking abortions,” not “number of abortions.” He can’t say he wants to reduce the number of abortions without alienating the abortion industry. Interesting.
“It still is her child. And whether she has that child or she doesn’t it will always be her child and she will always know that.”
I’m so glad Rick didn’t let Piers interrupt him (again) and he continued on to make this point.
I would have liked to see him challenge Piers on the “ruin her life” comment.
I’d ask him why he considers his own future grandchildren ‘punishments’ if they’re not wanted and grandchildren if they are. I’d also ask him to work in a pathology lab for a day, reassembling the broken bodies of aborted babies, and see if he had a change of heart by the end of the day.
If Santorum says he would deny his daughter’s pleas, he looks like the cold and heartless goon that Morgan believes him to be. If he says he would relent and allow his daughter an abortion, he surrenders his moral high ground and appears a hypocrite.
And? Santorum believes that a woman who is pregnant from rape should be compelled to give birth. Wouldn’t it be nice if he had the courage to acknowledge the sacrifice he is demanding from that woman, instead of giving her some pablum about how she should just lie back and enjoy it?
I’d also like someone to ask him why it’s ok for proaborts to trash Santorum’s wife and lie about her baby’s death being due to abortion when it clearly wasn’t, since they are supposedly so prowoman (unless a woman can be used as a tool to score rhetorical and political points). I think Obama might have something to say about it if his wife were in Karen Santorum’s place and the liberal salvos were aimed at her instead.
I’ve always hated it & thought it patronizing when so-called proponents of “choice” immediate assume that because a woman is a victim of rape, she will want an abortion or that it’s the best option in her situation, usually based on their presumptions & prejudices. Instead of using it as a political jabbing point or sound piece, we should be respecting and listening to victims.
Also, I think it’s pretty arrogant and stereotyping to presume that because some is against abortion that they are “compelling women to give birth” or they don’t understand the sacrifice. For one thing, pregnancy and birth is natural process & if not forcibly interrupted by abortion (or unintentionally miscarriage) will continue to term. Also, we cannot read others minds or presume to know what they think or feel and to do so is ignorant, rather than having an honest and open dialogue.
*Addendum & Edit
For one thing, pregnancy and birth is natural process & if not forcibly interrupted by an induced abortion (or unintentionally, a miscarriage) will continue to term without force. It is an induced abortion which involves force, to end the pregnancy, despite various clinic’s attempts to advertise the procedures as “gentle” there is nothing “gentle” about the forcible dilation of the tightly-closed cervix during pregnancy & scraping of the uterine wall & embryo/fetus, just by the nature of the procedure & how it’s preformed.
President Obama, is it possible that someday in the future people will look upon the killing of millions of unborn children in abortion mills as a dark period of insanity in the history of mankind?
What are your ideas for making abortion truly rare? How do you think we can give pregnant mothers real hope in caring for themselves and the children they carry in the face of hardship, even serious adversity?
With all we now know about developing human life, eg ultrasound images, etc., when do you think we will be able to leave abortion behind and legally honor the lives of the smallest Americans?
HONEST journalists? Now THERE’S an oxymoron for you! ;)
No..I know..there ARE a few.
Mr. President, at which time will you first inquire about the health and well-being of your daughter and grandchild: when you learn that your daughter is pregnant, or when you learn that your daughter has given birth?
Mr. President, because you have previously refused to answer the question, here it is again: ”At what point does a baby get human rights, in your view?” (Jill, in President Obama’s original response and non-answer to this question, he did say, at least according to the source I’m seeing: ”And so for me, the goal right now should be — and this is where I think we can find common ground — and by the way, I’ve now inserted this into the Democratic Party platform — is ‘How do we reduce the number of abortions?’ “)
I have another question, Mr. President. Aside from the immorality of both abortion and the crushing debt load, why is it you and your party which both recklessly increase the deficit and debt (and don’t even bother to produce a budget) and officially commit to the abortion policy that thins the ranks of the future tax-payers who will have to suffer for your irresponsibility?
I would say this I helped raise a date rape child. The mother was date raped, when she found out about her being with child all and I mean all of her friends told her to get an abortion. Her response was ” it’s not the babies fault he was concieved in an act of violence.” As a result all of her friends abandoned her after she gave birth. So much for choice. She made all new friends who were non judgemental and to make a long story short, today this young man has a degree in computer engineering from argueably the second best school in country and is now going for his masters in business management from the best school in the country Northwestern University’s (Kellog). So Mr. President if you feel so strongly about abortion you would have no problem saying to his face by all rights you should be buried under 100 feet of garbage in a landfill, if you can’t say that to him you are a phony, if you can, I question your humanity.
wuzzup mistah prez,
Wen yo momma was prego wit yo, wut kinda embryo/fetus wuz kickin back in her belly?
“wuzzup mistah prez,
Wen yo momma was prego wit yo, wut kinda embryo/fetus wuz kickin back in her belly?”
Nice to see that Ken is back with his trademark racism which would appear to be part of his virulent hatred for our first African American president. The “question” he poses is done in “ebonics” or minstrel speak which is based on a racial stereotype and, as such, is quite offensive. Does Ken think that pro-life blacks speak in this manner? If Alveda King were addressing the president, would she speak this way? I think not.
Word to Ken – Amos and Andy stopped being funny a long time ago.
BTW, Piers Morgan is a horses arse and hopefully will be held accountable, by the Brits, for his possible role in the Murdoch wiretapping case. This type of question, regarding abortion restrictions even in cases of rape and incest, could be posed in a way that isn’t personal.
“thins the ranks of the future tax-payers who will have to suffer for your irresponsibility.”
This “demographic” argument against abortion underscores the notion that pro-lifers think of women as incubators. Whilst China culls its excess population through draconian and anti-women measures, forcing women to breed, in order to produce future taxpayers, is just as odious. And BTW, not all babies grow up to be taxpayers. Some will be disabled, some will die before attaining age of majority,some will be poor, and some will be criminals.
CC, I know plenty of whites (and other races) that talk exactly this way. You don’t know their racial history so you should not judge them. If they want to talk this way, it is their choice no matter what their color. Why are you so opposed to human rights and diversity?
Doesn’t President Obama have a white mother? Isn’t she the one who primarily raised him? Why is it you insist that Obama’s father’s race be credited and not his mother’s? Trademark sexism.
When I see Obama, the last thing I think of is his racial history. The first thing I think of when I see Obama is buckets of dead humans of all races.
forcing women to breed
I’m sorry, was there a Pro-Lifer I didn’t see advocating the forceful insemination of women? Because if so, I’d like to fight against them with you. However, if that person does not exist, your argument is faulty, considering that no Pro-Lifer I’ve ever heard of advocates forcefully inseminating women. Once a woman is pregnant, she has already “bred” herself, and we simply advocate for the result of that “breeding”-a new, living, young human being who cannot advocate for themselves.
But way to reduce sexually active women to animals by your choice of language. How empowering.
I do enjoy that the question reads “honest” journalists. The reason Santorum gets asked the question is because that is one of the core elements of his campaign, whereas with most politicians, the questions center around the larger issues – economy, deficit, foreign policy, etc…
I think I would ask - President Obama, you have said you’d like to make abortion “rare”. What steps can be implemented so that more women feel that abortion is not the best solution.
Conspicuously Compromised
Just who might you be, missy….when you are at home?
Who died and made you sherrif of the conversation?
Amos and Andy are deceased, but their grandchildren are still providing a similar genre of entertainment and the shelves are still rife with their wares. The market place seldom lies. Consumers, of all ethnicities, are buying what the ‘bros and hoes’ are selling.
The female rapper Nicki Minaj has a very hot new video called “Stupid Hoe.” She uses that same term to snap at other women — “We ship platinum, them b—-es are shipping wood / Them nappy-headed hoes, but my kitchen good.”
Minaj even threw the n-word in the lyrics: “How you gon’ be the stunt double to the nigga monkey?”
The video broke YouTube records by clocking up 4.8 million views in its first 24 hours on the site and 11 million over the weekend.
[I have no clue who ‘Minaj’ is, but I am confident she aint no white trash cracker.]
Just watch some BETV, or visit your county jail and spend some up close and personal time with the inmates, or listen to some of Jermiah Wrights or Louis Farakhans race laced diatribes or attend a meeting of the Congressional Black Caucus.
Invite some of your black friends over for coffee and donuts [if you have any] and ask them if the words I choose to use are inherently racist, or is it just the fact that I am pigmentally challenged that make them so.
Then get back to me on the current content of black culture and black entertainment.
I will cease the use of ebonics when mr. bo-jangles does.
[Did you know that he O’bamas named their dog ‘Bo’? I read that mrs. O’bamas husband even chose ’b o’ as his screen name on some of the social web sites.]
Sammy Davis, Jr. had class and talent.
b o lacks both.
Still waiting for unemployment to drop below 8%.
I believe it is almost 16% in the the black community.
Missy Maxine Waters will take mr. bo-jangles to task for that glaring discrepency as soon as her constituency ‘unleashes’ her on b o. [Now there is some plantation imagery: unleashing the overseer on a black man.]
Neither I nor b o are expecting that to happen any time soon.
Congratulations to the soon to be Mr. and Mr. Barney Frank. [Be sure and wash your hands after you go thru that receiveing line.]
See ‘Bed, Bath and Beyond’ to view the couples ‘wedding registry’. We would not want to burden them with duplicate ‘his and his’ monogrammed towel sets.
Ken -
I’ve liked you at times (and you owe your name to me)
But sometimes you are the stupidest P.O.S. on this board.
Ex-RINO,
By P.O.S. do you mean ‘Progressive O’bama Sycophant’?
If you do then the use of ‘stupidest’ would be redundant.
Have you officially cut your ties to the GOP?
Time to quit all the waffling and vacillating between two opinions.
You really need to do something exceptional to demonstrate your dedication and committment to progressivism.
I recomend a youtube video clip of you having one of those o’bama logos tatooed right in the center of your forehead. [Like one of those third eye thangs.]
I bet you will get more hits than Minaj.
You know what I mean by POS!
I still vote for the occasional GOPer at the state level. Not often, but I do.
Maybe we could tour the country and show off my progressive ways and your conservative ways. We could find a gay soldier – I could thank them and you could boo them. We could find an insured person dying and I could bring them to a hospital and you could lecture them on the problems of being born into the wrong family. We could find a soon to be executed prisoner and I could talk about the sanctity of life and you can cheer for their death.
Good times!
Mr. President, let’s say for the sake of argument that one of your daughters became pregnant, and she decided to have a late-term abortion.
Despite the doctor’s best efforts to kill the fetus, while the doctor is not there, you end up catching a live, breathing baby in your arms.
To honor your daughter’s ‘choice’, do you kill him by neglect, or take more direct action?
Would you leave your grandchild to whimper and die in a pile of soiled linens? Would you sever his spine with a pair of scissors? Or would you dispatch him like an unwanted puppy in a bucket of water?
“We could find an insured person dying and I could bring them to a hospital and you could lecture them on the problems of being born into the wrong family.”
More like you could check for their Obamacare card while we would say why the hell does he need one to get care….you POL…..the L stands for liberal which is the equivalent of a Runny POS
truth – actually, the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act of 1986 says that the injured person I am throwing out there would get treatment. Based on GOPers yelling to let the person die – my claim is that GOPers have some hope in overturning that act.
Your really reaching there RINO. The fact that your comments have evolved into personal attacks should be a sign to you that you have nothing of value to say.
Truth – a personal attack, but nature, is against a person. I attacked an entire political party – that isn’t a personal attack.
I’m just saying, people in the audience yelled “let him die” at a debate regarding a question on life and death and insurance coverage.
Are you saying that you and most GOPers are all in favor of a blank check for coverage of illegal immigrants or anybody who is poor if the person’s life is in danger? I’d like to say you are…I’m just saying that there has been some evidence to the contrary this last year.
“Why do you want to violate the first amendment rights of Catholics and force your pro-death beliefs on them?” and exactly how do you think that is happening?
“Why are you so intolerant of their religious beliefs?” – preventing you from forcing others to adhere to your beliefs is not tantamount to preventing you from practicing your beliefs.
Hey ken, found Trig’s birth certificate yet?
“Why do you want to violate the first amendment rights of Catholics and force your pro-death beliefs on them?” and exactly how do you think that is happening?
“Why are you so intolerant of their religious beliefs?” – preventing you from forcing others to adhere to your beliefs is not tantamount to preventing you from practicing your beliefs.
Hey ken, found Trig’s birth certificate yet?
Once a woman is pregnant, she has already “bred” herself.
And the relevance of this to a discussion about a woman who was raped is what? That she shouldn’t have worn that dress?
And the relevance of this to a discussion about a woman who was raped is what?
I was wondering that same thing, since CC was the one who brought up “forcing women to breed” when no one here that I know of advocates forceful insemination of women against their will.
And the relevance of this to a discussion about a woman who was raped is what?
Good luck getting an answer from CC who brought up forcing women to get pregnant.
If a women is raped and a child is conceived, two wrongs will never make a right.
Two questions:
Question 1
The first question requires some setup since the President has said the question of when human life begins is beyond his pay grade. Therefore, hand him some scientificy literature indicating when life starts and request that he read it aloud to the audience. After he is done reading the literature ask him the following question:
Mr. President according to the scientific literature that you have just read life begins at conception so why don’t our laws protect all human life from the moment of conception? Why do you support the Supreme Court’s determination which states that a mother’s privacy right trumps the right to life of the pre-born?
Question 2
Provide him with information about the various abortion procedures that details the impact these procedures have on the pre-born. Also provide him with an array of impact statements from post abortive women. Ask him to read this literature out loud, and then ask him the following question:
Mr. President, previously you read literature that stated human life begins at conception, and currently you have just read out loud the various procedures that destroy that human life and the impact that this destruction has on both the pre-born infant and the Mother. Now, after understanding that an abortion kills a human child, and assuming you were qualified medical practitioner, would you ever perform an abortion?
I think personal questions are ok and fair game. Strong Pro-Lifers leaders, like Rick Santorum, come out ahead.
wuzzup mistah prez,
Wen yo momma was prego wit yo, wut kinda embryo/fetus wuz kickin back in her belly?
The black guy won. Get over it.
I have to remove two words from my first question. I wouldn’t want Mr. Obama to weasel out of answering the question by saying that there is no “right to” life found in the Constitution (according to him or the Supreme Court). Reflecting on Mr. Obama’s possible “weaselness” I realized that he is a lawyer by training. This fact about the President’s educational background makes his answers concerning the legality of the personhood of the preborn that much more relevant. Mr. Obama must surely understand and appreciate that all human life is sacred and deserving of protection by Federal law or the Constitution. In fact, I am sure he has said as much without understanding the full import of the very words he said. So without further ado here is my revised question:
Mr. President according to the scientific literature that you have just read life begins at conception so why don’t our laws protect all human life from the moment of conception? Why do you support the Supreme Court’s determination which states that a mother’s privacy right trumps the life of the pre-born?
Additionally I would like Mr. Obama to explain why the legal definition of a person does not include preborn human beings.