Progress Illinois

Does Barack Obama support infanticide? That's the impression one might get reading right-wing blogs and magazines these days.

This mess began last Monday, when the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC) published a statement entitled "Obama Cover-up Revealed On Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Bill." The report provides an "updated chronology" of Barack Obama's "no" votes in the Illinois State Senate on the Illinois Born Alive Infant Protection Act (BAIPA). Initially, Obama says he voted against the legislation because it lacked language "clarifying that the act would not be used to undermine Roe vs. Wade," language a federal bill included. The NRLC disputes the point and have since tried to frame Obama as a pro-choice radical who has committed a "brazen factual misrepresentation."

This news has conservatives frothing at the mouth. The Weekly Standard printed a short encapsulation of the NRLC findings under the headline "Obama's Abortion Distortion," to which Illinois Review's Fran Eaton linked. The National Review joined the chorus. Pat Buchanan wrote a hysterical column in which he described his vision of the "partial birth abortion" procedure in gory detail. After the issue came up at Rick Warren's church this weekend, the issue catapulted into the mainstream media as well. Yesterday, the New York Times and the Chicago Tribune tried to pin down the chronology of the votes.

On his blog last night, Tribune columnist Eric Zorn dug through the legislative weeds and acknowledged that Obama appears to have committeed "a superficial misstatement of the facts" in describing the bill in question.  But Zorn also found ample evidence that Obama's views on the legislation were perfectly in line with legislators from both sides of the aisle at the time:

The history makes it clear that Obama's role in delaying "born-alive" legislation was minor and based on very understandable reservations of many pro abortion rights legislators in Springfield. There is simply no way to paint him as an "extremist" when multiple versions of this same legislation failed in both chambers, often over bi-partisan concerns -- though Jill Stanek is apparently having some success pushing this angle with those who don't have the patience you've had to wade through all the bills and arguments.

As Zorn notes, the source of the "extremist" allegations is Illinois' own Jill Stanek, a conservative crackpot by even the toughest standards. Archpundit provides a greatest hits list of Stanek's follies, including her staunch belief that Terri Schiavo was conscious throughout the duration of her hospital stay. Politico's Ben Smith reported Tuesday that Stanek even opposes the use of condoms in Africa. You can't make this stuff up.

The recurring argument that Democrats support "partial-birth abortion" is nothing more than a red herring used to vilify doctors and women who support reproductive rights (Dana Goldstein's RH Reality Check column, which we excerpted in March, is instructive here).  The right-wing's intense focus on this very rare procedure is disproportionate and blatantly political. Nothing more.