Common Ground = My Way or the Highway

The President with the most extreme voting record on abortion has said that he wants to find “common ground” on this issue. And that despite his own beliefs, (and Presidential Orders) he seeks to reduce the number of abortions. Uh huh.

I'm calling bullshit on this. There's too much evidence to the contrary. First, the Global Gag Rule was an executive order issued on his second day in office. Remember he inherited a collapsing economy and his priority was in lifting a ban on U.S. tax dollars that went international health organizations that performed abortions. Does that make sense?

Next we had the Stem Cell Executive Order six weeks later. (Of course the stupidity is completely lost on him when his own remarks refer to "life saving vaccines" as being a net gain with stem cell research. Not seeing the irony that it takes one life to give another, Barry? Probably not considering he supported infanticide while in the Illinois State House. Not before he supported it on multiple occassions, then lied about it on the campaign trail. One of his campaign staffers Hari Sevugan, admitted that he voted against the language of the Illinois Born Alive Protection Bill (even though it passed unanimously at the federal level. Details. Details.)

Let's recap Obama's position thus far:

Choice as defined by Roe > Babies born alive after botched abortions.

He places more value to hypothetical situations (ie, the possibility that Roe could be undermind) than living breathing humans. Got it?

Then we have the upcoming modification to the longstanding Conscience Clause provisions. For lack of a better phrase, Obama is going to jack those up as well.

How it stands now there are about three components to these provisions:

1. For any entity that receives funds or grants from the Department of Health and Human Services cannot require any individual to perform or assist in a sterilization procedure or abortion if its contrary to his/her religious beliefs or moral convictions.
2. Prohibits that entity from discriminating against any doctor or health care personnel in terms of employment, promotion, or termination of employment because they did perform -or- refused to perform abortions.
3. Provision three also deals with discrimination in the same vein, but for entitles that specialize in biomedical or behavioral researchers

The Secretary of the DHS is propsosing rescinding these protections. Translation: Any doctor or health care worker with a pro-life stance better get 10 CC's of Monster.com and beef up the resume as they could be looking for a new line of work.

Personally I don't believe they can constitutionally require anyone to perform the procedure. While "First, do no harm" is not an official tenant to the Hippocratic Oath, many doctors still abide. I can't imagine even a judge in the 9th Circuit requiring any doctor to actually perform a procedure that runs contrary to their beliefs.

That said, the work environment for any such practitioner or employee that refuses to perform an abortion could get very uncomfortable. I see employment discrimination cases rising exponentially if these protectionist provisions lapse. This is Kathleen Sebelius we're talking about here.

The period to comment to the HHS on this proposed regulation ended at the end of April. We're keeping an eye this one.

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As an aside, something I've always pondered with this CHOICE! first crowd....

Why is it that when it comes to the issue of abortion it's always the right to choose. Always. Yet on any other issue, it's the right not of individual choice, but collectivism:

• Gun control >>>No choice. People with free will kill with guns!
• School choice>>> No choice. Homeschoolers are freaks. Viva la NEA!
• Curbing taxes and spending>>>No choice . We have shared responsibilities.
• Health care>>> No choice. We need the Swedish model!
• Free speech>>>>No choice. We need speech that is polite and nurturing.

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And back to where we started--where exactly is his "common ground" when it comes to Obama and abortion? A tad to the right of NARAL? I don't think it's the "common ground" with Obama. I think it's the "lowest common denominator".