Open Letter to President-Elect Obama About Abortion: From a Pro-Obama and Pro-Life Leader (Schaeffer

[struggle4progress]

Frank Schaeffer
Posted November 12, 2008 | 01:06 PM (EST)

... 1) If in the early days of your presidency you waive a red flag in the face of the pro-life movement -- and I'm not talking about the fringe crazies, I'm talking about the decent humane thoughtful pro-life folks who would have voted Democratic were it not for this one issue -- you will confirm the worst paranoid fantasies of the people who have tried to use this issue to block out all other considerations. Perception is important. If you start with some sweeping gesture striking down local and state ordinances that ask for parental notification before a minor can obtain an abortion, and make that one of the first expenditures of your political capital you will have initiated the next round of the culture war.

2) On the other hand if some of your early initiatives are boldly proclaimed as specifically aimed at reducing the number of abortions, for instance initiatives to help facilitate adoption, provide care for pregnant women and children, of a kind that will make it easier for women with troubled pregnancies to keep their children, introduce sex education curriculum that teaches responsibility and the sacredness of sex that you have talked about in your campaign ... everything could change.

3) Start with bold programs to reduce the number of abortions, while keeping abortion legal, and while protecting Roe, and you'll be surprised at how many Evangelical Protestants and Roman Catholics who would have voted for you except for this issue, will be won over. You will calm the waters and defuse the situation.

4) Put real substance into programs to reduce the number of abortions, and combine that with talking about the fact that this is a moral issue upon which reasonable and honorable people can disagree, and you will have taken a giant step towards bringing this country together ...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/frank-schaeffer/an-open-letter-to-preside_b_143251.html


Two comments:

(1) Schaeffer really doesn't accurately describe how Obama's actions could lead to a backlash -- but he is accurately describing the rightwing framing of Obama's actions could lead to a backlash

(2) Schaeffer's advice, about the direction Obama should head and how that should be framed, may be good advice

[amdezurik]

1. no such thing as "pro-life" movement

it is just anti-woman

[Oldenuff]

4. It's just anti-woman?

what a crock.

[Triana]

8. It's pro-CONTROL of women, and therefore, mysogenist. They don't give a DAMN about "life"...

...they only give a damn about controlling other people. Namely, women.

I think Schaeffer's advice is sound.

[RainDog]

9. no. the crock is that it's called "pro-life." it's anti-choice - and anti-woman

by all means, implement policies to support women infants and children. these are sound policies to create a new generation that can meet the future. men need the same help sometimes.

NO ONE wants to make abortion the birth control of choice. no one. if we want fewer unplanned pregnancies, we need birth control information for teenagers and easily available birth control.

that's what we need if anyone really wants to claim to be "pro-life."

[Demeter]

11. I Have Yet to See, Read or Hear Any Thoughtful and Decent "Pro-Life" (sic) Representative, Either

So there's deception piled upon self-deception.

[Sal Minella]

2. "bold programs to reduce the number of abortions" = more family planning clinics where cheap

contraceptives and the EC pill and BC pills are readily available to anyone who needs them, without notifying anybody, because it just isn't anybody else's business, is it, really, including Schaeffer's, whoever he is.

[struggle4progress]

3. Teen pregnancies, and more generally unwanted pregnancies, are a public health issue

For some decades, the political battle lines have been stagnant: the "conservative camp" opposes essentially all abortion & sex education & family planning, while the "liberal camp" supports all of these without restriction. That, of course, is a ridiculous cartoon of real attitudes, but the cartoon describes the way the battle is actually conducted in sound-bites. There is a real need to address a number of public health issues, but that won't happen unless the battle-lines can be redrawn. A number of people, across the political spectrum, are aware that better access to useful sex education & family planning could reduce the number of abortions. If we have to reframe issues to make progress, we should reframe

[Doctor_J]

5. The wing nuts will latch onto and inflate ANYTHING he does

trying to pander to the ANTI-CHOICE movement will only make the people who worked their asses off for him abandon ship.

This is the kind of shit we'll be debating while China takes over the world

[struggle4progress]

6. It depends on what you mean. There's clearly no point in wasting time

with extremists who plan dishonest attacks no matter what. On the other hand, there's a chunk of more centrist people, who are very uncomfortable with abortion and who have been camping with the extremists because the extremists are the only ones talking about abortion. Many of those campers are likely to agree that sex education & birth control should be available, once they realize that that availability of sex education & birth control has the potential for reducing the number of abortions. That's what the article discusses, and I'm not sure why you think that should be described as "pandering to the anti-choice movement" or why you believe an attempt to craft a larger consensus for sex education & birth control should make pro-choicers abandon ship :shrug:

[Stargazer09]

7. As far as I'm concerned,

I have no problem with providing better sex education, more free/reduced price contraceptive clinics, and other means to help bring down the number of abortions.

But abortion still needs to be LEGAL, SAFE, and CONFIDENTIAL.

I'm certainly not "pro-abortion." I'd rather have fewer unwanted pregnancies, but I still want women to have the right to seek an abortion if the pregnant woman (not somebody else) deems it's necessary.

[struggle4progress]

12. that's kInda what th'article sez

[JeanGrey]

10. This is VERY good advice!