Tuesday, November 25, 2008
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Not Exactly the Kind of "Hope" They Had in Mind
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Posted by:
Carol Platt Liebau at
12:09 PM
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Writing at Slate, a Catholic, Melinda Hennenberger (who apparently voted for Obama), worries about the President-elect's strong pro-abortion views -- suddenly realizing that if he was serious about his promise to sign the Freedom of Choice Act, it might well mean either that staff at Catholic hospitals are forced to perform abortions against their will or (in her view, the more likely scenario) Catholic hospitals across the country will simply close their doors.
Well, yes. Could it be that pro-life Obama supporters are suddenly realizing that pro-lifers -- including Archbishop Charles Chaput and other prominent Catholic clergy -- weren't kidding when they called Barack Obama the most extreme pro-abortion politician ever in mainstream American politics?
She ends her piece like this:
At the very moment when Obama and his party have won the trust of so many Catholics who favor at least some limits on abortion, I hope he does not prove them wrong. I hope he does not make a fool out of that nice Doug Kmiec, who led the pro-life charge on his behalf. I hope he does not spit on the rest of us—though I don't take him for the spitting sort—on his way in the door. I hope that his appointment of Ellen Moran, formerly of EMILY's List, as his communications director is followed by the appointment of some equally good Democrats who hold pro-life views.
It's not clear what in the substance of President-elect Obama's voting record makes such hopes at all reasonable. And somehow, I doubt this was the kind of "hope" Obama supporters had in mind when they voted for him.
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