To this day, even when speaking to pro-lifers, I still so often hear, “I didn’t know Obama was that bad on abortion!” when I tell about my experience with him as state senator and his opposition to the Illinois Born Alive Infant Protection Act. Students for Life of America found in a recent poll of young Americans that his support sank by 43% among undecided voters when they learned of his radical support of infanticide.

The Susan B. Anthony List is going to spotlight exactly that during a 10-day battleground state bus tour beginning August 20, and I’m thrilled to have been invited along for the ride.

Press release…

Today, the Susan B. Anthony List announced a five state “Women Speak Out: Abortion is Not Health Care” bus tour through swing states, August 20 to 30.

Led by former Colorado Rep. Marilyn Musgrave and pro-life nurse and whistleblower Jill Stanek, who exposed then state-senator Barack Obama’s refusal to protect live children who survived the abortion procedure, the bus tour will draw attention to President Obama’s extremism on abortion.

The bus tour will travel to 30 cities throughout key swing states of Iowa, Wisconsin, Ohio, Virginia, and Florida.  National and local pro-life leaders will rally Americans to defeat President Obama and pro-abortion House and Senate candidates including Christie Vilsack (IA), Tammy Baldwin (WI), Sherrod Brown (OH), Tim Kaine (VA), and Bill Nelson (FL). A tentative schedule is available at www.SBAbus.com.], where you’ll also find a complete list of bus tour co-sponsors and more on Obama’s abortion record.

Local and statewide pro-life women leaders will join up with the bus at various stops, including: Iowa Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds, Wisconsin Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch, Rep. Jean Schmidt (OH-02), Dr. Alveda King, Star Parker, Polly Jordan, wife of Rep. Jim Jordan (OH-04), and pro-life speaker and abortion survivor Melissa Ohden.

The title of Mitt Romney’s August 9 campaign ad, “Be Not Afraid,” was obviously intentional, a tip of the hat to Pope John Paul II’s favored words of Jesus. The ad itself was aimed at the important Catholic voting bloc, which supported Barack Obama by a margin of 54-45% in 2008.

Romney’s choice of Catholic Paul Ryan as his running mate is also partially intended to woo Catholics. As a social and fiscal conservative, Ryan draws a sharp contrast to pro-abortion, pro-gay marriage, pro-Obamacare Catholic Vice President Joe Biden.

Politico goes in-depth today on Obama’s vulnerability among Catholics this go-around:

No one doubted the Roman Catholic vote would be up for grabs in November, even before Mitt Romney named Paul Ryan as his running mate.

Now, the selection of Ryan, the first Catholic ever nominated for national office by Republicans, all but guarantees a fierce election-year fight for the affections of Catholic voters – or more specifically, white Catholics, who form the bulk of the Catholic vote here in this corner of Iowa and across the Rust Belt.

Four years ago, there wasn’t much of a fight. President Barack Obama won Iowa Catholics, about a quarter of the electorate, by what the exit polls showed was an 18% margin.

Yet there are signs in Dubuque, an overwhelmingly Catholic and traditionally Democratic stronghold of 58,000 on the banks of the Mississippi River, that suggest the president’s support is much softer than last time.

In part, it’s a reflection of the general erosion in the president’s support, but it’s also because of tensions between the administration and the Catholic Church over a federal mandate, which went into effect Aug. 1, that forces employers, including the Church, to cover contraceptive services in health plans….

“In places like Dubuque, being Catholic is not just about religion,” [Catholic Sara Fagen, former political advisor to President George W. Bush] said. “It’s about their culture. For some, it’s an attack on their beliefs in pro-life issues. For some, it’s an attack on freedom of religion. Yet for many people in towns like Dubuque, it’s an attack on our culture.”…

The Romney campaign, however, has stepped up its national efforts to win over Catholics. The candidate visited the Pope John Paul II memorial while in Poland last month, and a clip of Romney quoting the late pope appears in an ad released Thursday that suggests Obama does not share the “values” of Catholics.

The administration still has some work to do to win over white Catholics nationally, though. While a Pew Research Center poll published last week showed Obama leading 51% to 42% among Catholics, that figure was inflated by Obama’s wide percentage among Latino Catholics in noncompetitive states. Among white Catholics, many of whom are clustered in the Rust Belt, Romney led Obama 49% to 44%.

Here’s that Romney ad, released in response to the recent slew of ads Obama has released attacking Romney on his pro-life stance and opposition to taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood…

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMv28sYQzCY[/youtube]

[Photo via The Daily Beast]

Pro-life activist Gary Boisclair is creating quite a stir in his primary bid against Muslim Democrat incumbent Congressman Keith Ellison in Minnesota’s 5th District, up to and including death threats.

Boisclair freely admits he is running against Ellison solely to take advantage of federal law that forces television stations to air federal candidates’ ads uncensored.

Boisclair is airing three graphic ads, one on Ellison’s support of abortion, one on the underbelly of Ellison’s religion, and one on a combination of the two issues….

The ads began airing August 7 and immediately drew death threats, but Boisclair says he will not be detered.

According to the Star Tribune, August 7:

As a congressional candidate, Gary Boisclair is making good on his promise to go negative.

“This is not pretty,” he said of his television ads that started airing in the Twin Cities on Tuesday afternoon, featuring close-up images of aborted fetuses. “It’s not intended to make people feel good.”

The ads are part of a national campaign backed by longtime abortion opposition leader Randall Terry, the Operation Rescue founder who has run similar ads in Florida, Illinois, Oklahoma and other states.

In the Twin Cities, the 15th-largest media market in the nation, the ads take aim at Minnesota Democrat Keith Ellison, whose Muslim faith is also a target for Boisclair.

“Islam has a long history of shedding blood,” said Boisclair, a native of Buffalo, MN, who now lives in West Virginia, where he describes himself as a Christian missionary.

Ellison’s campaign denounced the ads, which were scheduled to run on all the major networks in the Twin Cities, including during NBC’s 4 p.m. Olympic news time slot on KARE, Channel 11.

“Mr. Boisclair’s television ads are clearly designed to divide Minnesotans and spread fear,” Ellison campaign manager Will Hailer said. “With his official residence listed in West Virginia, it’s not surprising that Mr. Boisclair’s views are out of touch with Minnesota values. Conversely, Representative Ellison is a proud advocate for inclusion, dialogue and a woman’s right to access comprehensive reproductive health care.”

“Comprehensive reproductive health care” – in other words, abortion. Love how they can no longer say the word.

With so much focus on Ryan’s fiscal austerity (except when it comes to tax cuts for the rich), his extreme position on women’s reproductive rights has faded into the background.

Like almost all House Republicans, he has voted in lockstep with his party to deny women access to safe abortion care, contraception, breast exams, and other critical preventive care; repeal the Affordable Care Act; and de-fund Planned Parenthood.

~ Robin Marty, criticizing Republican Vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan’s voting record, RH Reality Check, August 9

[Graphic via sadiemagazine.com]

I saw a poll question at Abortioneers I thought was a good one:

Do you know someone who has had an abortion?

Vote on the lower right side of the home page.

Sadly, the response there was 100% for “Yes,” albeit only 16 votes. I still thought this was telling. How many people support abortion simply because they know someone – or have been someone- who got one? Although I suppose just as many could be pro-life for that reason.

So we know now Mitt Romney chose Paul Ryan as his running mate. But only 11.4% of you got the right answer! And somehow I think Kelly Ayotte fans skewed the poll a tad…

As always, make comments to either the previous or current poll here, not on the Vizu website.

My top five six favorite political cartoons this week…

by Gary McCoy at Cagle.com…

 by Glenn McCoy at Townhall.com…

 by Chip Bok at GoComics.com…

 by TobyToons…

 by liberal Joel Pett at GoComics.com (always interesting to get the other side’s perspective)…

 by Steven Breen at Townhall.com…

This week political cartoonists on both the left and right had fun with U.S. Senate Democrat Majority Leader Harry’s Reid’s wild, unfounded accusations against Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney…

by Eric Allie at Townhall.com…

 a twofer by Glenn McCoy at Townhall.com…

 by Nick Anderson at GoComics.com…

 by Glenn Foden at Townhall.com…

 by Gary McCoy at Townhall.com…

 by Steve Sack at GoComics.com…

Then Asa cried out to the LORD his God, “O LORD, no one but you can help the powerless against the mighty! Help us, O LORD our God, for we trust in you alone.”

~ II Chronicles 14:11a, God’s Word translation