He lamented the fact “I was said to have ‘voted to deny life-saving treatment to babies born alive.’”

COUNTER ATTACKS

Not only has Obama distorted his record, but his campaign has also viciously tried to discredit critics who accurately described Obama’s votes in the Illinois State Senate on abortion.

Last June, CNN aired a segment about Obama’s abortion votes in Illinois. Conservative radio host and CNN contributor Bill Bennett said: “The 2003 bill had exactly the same language as the federal bill, and Barack Obama voted against it. This [bill] was not about Roe v. Wade, this was not about abortion, it was about protecting these babies when they are alive, after seven months, five months, six months, whether it be an abortion or through birth or through any other means. Barack Obama, what he’s saying is just false. Check the record. The more you dig into it, the worse it looks. He should just say whatever he wants, something else—‘I was naïve;’ ‘I didn’t realize how close it was to the federal act.’ He cannot say it was different from the federal act: It was the same.”

The Obama campaign issued a vengeful “FactCheck” press release later that day accusing Bennett of making “inaccurate claims.”

Obama went a step further against the NRLC. When confronted by the Christian Broadcasting Network’s David Brody over his record on “born alive,” Obama called members of the NRLC “liars.”

“There was some literature put out by the National Right to Life Committee,” Brody told Obama in an August interview. “And they’re basically saying they felt like you misrepresented your position on that bill.”

Obama said the NRLC “have not been telling the truth” and launched into some of the harshest language he’s ever used against his opponents. “And I hate to say that people are lying,” he lectured, “but here’s a situation where folks are lying.” Once again, Obama pretended his committee vote against a “neutral” “born alive” bill never occurred and referred only to his previous floor votes against the unamended version of the bill.

“I have said repeatedly that I would have been completely in, fully in support of the federal bill that everybody supported—which was to say—that you should provide assistance to any infant that was born—even if it was as a consequence of an induced abortion,” Obama said. “That was not the bill that was presented at the state level. What that bill also was doing was trying to undermine Roe v. Wade. By the way, we also had a bill, a law already in place in Illinois that insured life-saving treatment was given to infants.”

“It defies common sense and it defies imagination, and for people to keep on pushing this is offensive and it’s an example of the kind of politics that we have to get beyond,” Obama charged. “It’s one thing for people to disagree with me about the issue of choice; it’s another thing for people to out-and-out misrepresent my positions repeatedly, even after they know that they’re wrong. And that’s what’s been happening.”

After Brody’s interview aired, a mid-level Obama spokeswoman, Hari Sevugan, grudgingly admitted to the New York Sun that Obama had indeed voted against the bill in committee. She said Obama voted against it because he wasn’t convinced the bill would not be used to undermine abortion rights in the state of Illinois.

NRLC Legislative Director Douglas Johnson brushed off Sevugan’s explanation. He said it “is not consistent with Obama’s oft-stated excuse for opposing the state legislation, and fails to explain his four years of misrepresentation,” he said. “Nor does the Sun story indicate that the Obama campaign has issued any apology to NRLC, Bill Bennett or the others who Senator Obama and his campaign have been calling liars for saying what they now admit was the truth.”

The NRLC and other members of the pro-life movement believe Obama’s 2003 vote will surely hurt him among social conservatives and evangelicals who are considering voting for Obama in November. Family Research Council President Tony Perkins said he hopes Obama will be asked about his committee vote during the presidential debates.

“This is infanticide,” Perkins said. “There’s no question in my mind.”