Abortion An Issue?
by Sharon Hughes
Issue 114 - August 20, 2008

Barack Obama is gaining some support with evangelicals even though he is one of the strongest pro-choice Senators in Congress. Is abortion no longer important to people of faith as some say?

While a Catholic pro-life group warns Catholics and Evangelicals that a vote for Barack Obama is "a vote for the radical agenda of Planned Parenthood," the religious left doesn't think it's an issue of greatest importance.

Jim Wallis, editor of the religious left magazine Sojourners, has argued that if Democrats want to win elections they must learn "how to talk the language of moral values, in a way that remains true to the party's principles."

Wallis says, "The American Right has been able to define "moral values" narrowly, almost exclusively in terms of wedge issues like abortion and gay marriage. It doesn't have to be this way. The abortion debate has really gotten very stale. It's a symbolic legal battle that takes place mostly only in election years. And it's a litmus test on the Left and the Right. No one seems to care about the abortion rate. The Republicans want a constitutional amendment banning abortion. That's just symbolic. It's never going to happen in America. And even if you do ban it, you're still going to have a huge problem in the culture."

I disagree with Wallis. The abortion rate still matters a great deal to the religious right. And why, may I ask, is a constitutional amendment banning abortion only a symbol?

While conservatives don't agree with John McCain on every issue, he is favored for his 100% pro-life voting record.

Obama boasted he had a 100-percent approval rating from Planned Parenthood compared to McCain's zero-percent rating, at a recent "Women for Obama" rally in New York where he welcomed the endorsement of the pro-abortion group. "I stand by my votes against confirming Justices Roberts and Alito.

I made it equally clear that I will never back down from making sure that women have their reproductive rights here in this country -- that's what's at stake in this election."

The following newstip on Planned Parenthood's most recent financial prosperity was passed on to me from a listener:

While most companies have started to feel the squeeze of our sagging economy, business has never been better for Planned Parenthood. Although the organization couldn't be more controversial, its profits have never been higher, according to the group's 2006-07 annual report. For the first time in history, Planned Parenthood surpassed the $1 billion mark in annual income, a milestone made possible by $336 million of your tax dollars.

Despite the rash of bad publicity, Planned Parenthood received a $31.4 million pay raise in taxpayer funds--a 10.8 percent increase in the "nonprofit's" government revenue. Adding to the windfall, Planned Parenthood's clinics worked overtime for an extra 24,707 abortions in 2006, six times the number of casualties from the entire Iraq war. All together, its abortion mills put 289,650 unborn babies to death in the year 2006 alone.This is an increase of more than 20,000 aborted babies from the year before.

All this is from an organization whose supporters say they want to make abortion rare?

Is abortion still important in campaigns?

Yes, to Planned Parenthood—and to people of faith who stop and think.

Sharon Hughes is Founder and President of The Center for Changing Worldviews and a radio talk show host on KDIA in San Francisco, NPLR, RIGHTALK.com, and online at Salem Web Network's Oneplace.com.