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Barack Obama: I Didn’t Say What I Said
By Jeff Fecke | July 5, 2008
Well, I guess it’s something:
Sen. Barack Obama clarified his position today on mental-health exceptions to late-term abortions, saying he supports such exceptions and that comments he made during a recent magazine interview shouldn’t be interpreted as opposing them.
Well, of course not! Who could interpret, “Now, I don’t think that “mental distress” qualifies as the health of the mother. I think it has to be a serious physical issue that arises in pregnancy, where there are real, significant problems to the mother carrying that child to term,” as saying that mental-health exceptions shouldn’t exist? It’s like we were reading English or something!
At any rate, Obama goes on to clarify his position:
Reporter: You said that mental distress shouldn’t be a reason for late-term abortion?
Obama: “My only point is this — historically I have been a strong believer in a women’s right to choose with her doctor, her pastor and her family. And it is ..I have consistently been saying that you have to have a health exception on many significant restrictions or bans on abortions including late-term abortions.
In the past there has been some fear on the part of people who, not only people who are anti-abortion, but people who may be in the middle, that that means that if a woman just doesn’t feel good then that is an exception. That’s never been the case.
I don’t think that is how it has been interpreted. My only point is that in an area like partial-birth abortion having a mental, having a health exception can be defined rigorously. It can be defined through physical health, It can be defined by serious clinical mental-health diseases. It is not just a matter of feeling blue. I don’t think that’s how pro-choice folks have interpreted it. I don’t think that’s how the courts have interpreted it and I think that’s important to emphasize and understand.
And all that is true, and all would have been nice for you to say in the first place.
I want to give you the benefit of the doubt, Barack, but I’m having trouble with it. You seem to have to clarify and revise and extend on women’s issues far too much. And on this, your clarification does boil down to, “Well, I didn’t say what I said.” But you did say what you said. I guess I’d rather you were clarifying in this direction than the opposite, but frankly, I’d rather clarifications didn’t have to be issued at all.
Topics: Abortion, Barack Obama | 7 Comments »
July 5th, 2008 at 11:50 pm
I’m furious. Utterly furious with Obama’s inability to simply admit a mistake (wouldn’t a new kind of politician be able to do that?), with the stupidity of Douglass’s remarks “explaining” what Obama meant after Obama explained what he meant, but most of all I’m furious with the lack of reaction of most of the liberal blogosphere on this.
And the way in which those who have reacted have done so with a big “meh.”
But did you know that Bill Clinton said Obama could kiss his ass? We need to write a whole bunch of posts about that!!!!!111!!1!!!!
Being committed to principles and truth should mean being committed to them all the time, even when it’s our side messing up.
July 6th, 2008 at 12:50 am
So he’s OK with copping up an unborn children who could survive outside the womb? yippie!…..isn’t that great libs? I feel really so much better now that he supports infanticide.
You liberals are really swell people.
July 6th, 2008 at 11:42 am
Sorry, this still doesn’t do it for me. Who gets to decide whether a woman has “serious clinical mental-health diseases” or is “just feeling blue”? I bet she’s not the one to decide. No, it’s the doctors, the politicians, and the lawmakers.
And how would this be done? If her “serious clinical mental-health diseases” were brought on BY the pregnancy and so hadn’t been diagnosed before – does she have to get a diagnosis first? How much time would that take? Last I checked, psychiatrists can’t just determine what you have and how serious it is in one visit. Will she have to go through therapy for weeks? Months? Her pregnancy could be over by then – or she could have killed herself trying to abort on her own.
Furthermore, WHICH “serious mental-health diseases” will be acceptable and which will not? Does she have to be a threat to herself? Does her life have to be in danger? Does it not count if she’s just being damaged (non-fatally) by her pregnancy?
No, sorry, Obama. Not good enough. You either respect women enough to make their own choices or you don’t. Just because you are a “nice” patriarch who lets women “get away” with certain things still makes you a patriarch. It’s still slavery, even if the slavemaster is really nice.
And who the hell gets a LATE TERM ABORTION because they are “just feeling blue” anyway? Does he not realise that it’s a serious, painful, and dangerous proceedure? Most people who would consider an abortion whenever they are “just feeling blue” would have aborted early on in the pregnancy, not hung on through all the pain, sickness, body distortion, etc. just to go through the cost, pain, danger, and social stigma of a late term abortion. It’s just silly to think that these women exist in high enough numbers to be worth even considering when passing laws that would restrict all the rest of us.
July 6th, 2008 at 12:41 pm
[...] I want to give you the benefit of the doubt, Barack– [...]
July 6th, 2008 at 12:53 pm
And all that is true, and all would have been nice for you to say in the first place.
It’s not all true. The term “partial-birth abortion” is bogus and refers to no specific, existing medical procedure. It is a term crafted by late-term abortion opponents to shock and mislead. He should know better.
And who the hell gets a LATE TERM ABORTION because they are “just feeling blue” anyway? Does he not realise that it’s a serious, painful, and dangerous proceedure?
I think that’s only the beginning of what is being generally ignored and misunderstood in the discourse about these procedures. However, I would think he would have a higher standard for informing himself on this topic. Truly, he has the chance to shift the discourse. But what we’re seeing here is that he’s focusing his comments on preventing any beastly, self-absorbed sluts from gleefully rushing off to abort their pregnancies willy-nilly. That’s some tired, old tripe right there. Very disappointing.
July 8th, 2008 at 6:07 pm
[...] candidates are chosen – Obama will have to do something pretty nasty to get me to not vote for him. Waffling on abortion isn’t one of them. Talk of refining one’s position on the war isn’t one either. Too [...]
July 8th, 2008 at 8:22 pm
Jeff, Grimalkin, please recall that Obama’s original quote about “mental distress” was taken neither from a speech nor a written policy statement. It was in the middle of an interview.
Now, I don’t know about you, but I do not always make all the points I want to, neatly and in perfect order, with all appropriate qualifications, when I answer a question verbally. And I’m an attorney, I answer judges’ questions for a living. That Obama comes as close as he does is pretty impressive. This is especially true, when you consider that more than any other politician I have seen, he appears to actually think about his answer on the spot, rather than launching smoothly into a set of vague, canned phrases (that usually evade the actual question).
Obama now says that he meant to refer to a common, though unfounded, concern expressed by anti-abortion activists, not to any actual real-world medical practice. Since there is, in fact, no such real-world practice, and since he does, in fact, know that, and since he has, in fact always spoken consistently with knowing that, why are you so upset and disbelieving? Because he didn’t originally also say “Not that that ever actually happens, of course”? Pfui. Perhaps he foolishly thought that his history of pro-choice votes, NARAL recommendation, and consistent pro-choice rhetoric would let him speak to the fears of the other side without simultaneously insulting them by telling them their fears were always groundless, because his own side would not jump to the conclusion that he was abandoning them. Obviously, I would expect Fox News to interpret everything he says in the harshest way possible. But I think we liberals can try for a higher standard.
Let’s try to bear in mind that our politicians are just people stumbling through their sentences like everyone else.