Time magazine's Senior editor, Amy Sullivan, reported in a recent Time article that the grassroots crusade to oppose the Freedom of Choice Act was all in vain. She attempts to spin the most radical abortion bill ever authored as merely mythical. Her title, The Catholic Crusade Against a Mythical Abortion Bill, is nothing short of a bold faced lie. My first awareness of FOCA dates back to last spring when I viewed a youtube video of then candidate Obama speaking at a Planned Parenthood event. In the video, he states that the first thing he would do when he became president was sign the Freedom of Choice Act.
He was rewarded with enthusiastic applause. Evidently, it was not mythical to that audience. And it is not mythical now. Just because it has not been put before this congress does not mean that it cannot. With a Democratically controlled White House and Congress, it is a reality based concern for all pro-life advocates. "What is the big deal?" or "What the FOCA?" you might inquire. Well, in contrast to Ms. Sullivan's deceitful description, FOCA would not merely codify Roe v. Wade, but rather would elevate abortion to a fundamental right. So why would Ms. Sullivan spin the article this way? A quick google search leads me to find that she is a self-professed Liberal Democrat who is pro choice. Now there is nothing wrong with that, unless you produce news stories that are biased in favor of your political identity. Additionally,she has authored a book that instructs Democratic candidates on how to spin hot button issues in order to get elected. She believes that if the pro-choice advocates change their language when it comes to abortion, they can appeal to pro-lifers, without giving up their pro-choice position. In the article cited above, she was spinning this article to favor liberal democratic pro-choice candidates and leaders while discrediting the opposition. FOCA is a radical proposal and I hope that Obama was just being a good politician and pandering to a radical left wing group. The story that Ms. Sullivan missed was in telling how effective the grass roots pro-life movement to raise awareness of FOCA was. And now that the light is shining on FOCA, its writers and supporters have scittered and the spin is that FOCA is a myth. So, the pro-lifers made FOCA vanish. Now, that is a story worth telling. But, pro-lifers are not going to rest on their laurals, here. The pro-abortion agenda will march on in quiet ways. But, we will be there watching and listening and saying no, no, no. You cannot take the life of an innocent human being no matter how inconvenient. Life is a fundamental right, no matter whose life it is. We will not yield.
Read the bill here: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c108:S.2020
For more information on FOCA:
