The Family Research Council which is a conservative Christian organization started airing the above ad which questions Barack Obama on his stance on the issue of abortions.
The ad itself is a personal note to Barack Obama from the President of the Family Research Council, Tony Perkins, while Perkins holds his son Samuel in his arms, asking Obama, “If, as you say, fatherhood begins at conception, when does life begin?” Perkins continues on to ask, "Or more to the point – and more personally – “If I became a father at conception, when did Samuel here become my son?”
He refers to Barack Obama's previous record on abortion, which of course forced this writer to start with the endless Google, Yahoo, and MSN searches so I could see for myself exactly what that record entailed to have a conservative religious group spend this kind of advertising money to attack Obama's views.
The first thing that started coming up in my searches was the recent remarks Barack Obama made in reference to his own daughters, which was highly criticized by members of the conservative community where he made the statement, "When it comes specifically to HIV/AIDS, the most important prevention is education, which should include -- which should include abstinence education and teaching the children -- teaching children, you know, that sex is not something casual. But it should also include -- it should also include other, you know, information about contraception because, look, I've got two daughters. 9 years old and 6 years old. I am going to teach them first of all about values and morals. But if they make a mistake, I don't want them punished with a baby. I don't want them punished with an STD at the age of 16. You know, so it doesn't make sense to not give them information."
The criticisms largely dealt with his comment about not wanting them "punished" with a baby.
Born-Alive Infants Protection Act.
Further searches brought up criticisms which go back to the year 2001, to the The Born-Alive Infants Protection Act, which was a law passed by the United States Congress in 2002 to protect an infant after a failed attempt to abort the fetus.
In 2001 there was the Senate Bill 1095, which describes what is meant by the term "born alive":
Defines "born-alive infant" to include every infant member of the species homo sapiens who is born alive at any stage of development. Defines "born alive" to mean the complete expulsion or extraction from the mother of an infant, at any stage of development, who after that expulsion or extraction breathes or has a beating heart, pulsation of the umbilical cord, or definite movement of voluntary muscles, regardless of whether the umbilical cord has been cut and regardless of whether the expulsion or extraction occurs as a result of natural or induced labor, cesarean section, or induced abortion.
Barack Obama was one of 4 in the Senate Judiciary Committee, to vote "no" on the final action. (Right side of form)
On March 30, 2001, Barack Obama explained his opposition to "Born Alive" On the Illinois Senate floor. (Page 85 to 87 of PDF file)
In 2002, it was bill number 1662 and again Obama gave his verbal opposition on the floor of the Illinois Senate on April 4, 2002 (pages 31 to 34 of PDF file) and then he voted "no" the same day.
In 2003, it was bill 1082 and the Democrats had taken control of the Illinois Senate in 2002, so the bill was sent to the Health & Human Services Committee, which was chaired by Barack Obama.
You can see the action docket for that bill for the year of 2003, right here.
Partial Birth Abortion.
In October of 2007, Obama voted against banning partial birth abortions.
Partial birth abortions which are a form of late term abortions, and are defined by U.S. laws as:
An abortion in which the person performing the abortion, deliberately and intentionally vaginally delivers a living fetus until, in the case of a head-first presentation, the entire fetal head is outside the body of the mother, or, in the case of breech presentation, any part of the fetal trunk past the navel is outside the body of the mother, for the purpose of performing an overt act that the person knows will kill the partially delivered living fetus; and performs the overt act, other than completion of delivery, that kills the partially delivered living fetus. (18 U.S. Code 1531)
Other issues.
Other issues that put Barack Obama on the opposite side of the ideological divide as conservative religious groups such as the Family Research Council, who created the video ad shown above, include but are not limited to votes to prevent parents from being notified when their minor children get out-of-state abortions (July 2006) and prohibiting minors crossing state lines for abortion (March 2008).
Voting record shown at "On the issues".
While strict conservative religious groups have been slow to embrace John McCain, the video ad and recent comments from evangelical leader, James C. Dobson, shows that they are no longer willing to stand back and are actively coming out against Barack Obama on issues that concern them the most.
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