Will Obama Allow Health Care Reform to Die Because of Abortion?

Before he was elected I called Barack Obama the most liberal candidate to come that close to becoming president in US history and after his election I opined that he was the most virulently pro-abortion president by far in US history. It is very interesting that in his campaign he said that the first thing he would do as president would be to sign the Freedom of Choice Act - which would make government funds available for abortion - but as president he has not even mentioned that piece of legislation. For those who think that is because he is choosing to govern from the center on this issue (as he promised repeatedly to do), this is not the true explanation. It is curious that he has received not one word of complaint from the abortion industry on his lack of focus on the FOCA. Why would that be?

Well, obviously his strategy has been to sneak abortion funding into the health care bill, even though abortion is not health care. The only time NARAL and NOW got upset and vocal was when the House of Representatives passed the Stupak amendment, which upset their schemes. Obama intervened and soon the Senate bill was even more pro-abortion funding. Then, last week, when Obama introduced his own version of the bill in order to try to break the impasse, it had even more funding for abortion in it than the Senate bill.

So now, with health care reform - his signature legislation, his legacy - hanging by a slim thread, will he compromise on abortion and make the health care legislation abortion-funding neutral?

No, he will not. He has shown no sign whatsoever of being willing to compromise in any way shape or form on abortion. It is pure ideology for him. He is a fanatic. And he may lose his chance to pass health care reform legislation because of his intransigence.

No matter how much he blames Republican partisanship for the problem, the truth is that Obama has not been able to get his own party to vote for his abortion funding bill. The Republicans lacked the ability to stop the health care legislation up until the election of Scott Brown in Massachusetts last month. Obama didn't get it through because he could not convince enough Democrats to vote for it.

The delay in November - December that led Nancy Pelosi finally to capitulate to the anti-abortion funding Democrats House members may have sunk health care reform already. The delay prevented the bill from passing before the Massachusetts election.

Obama's extremist abortion ideology - which represents the far left of the Democratic Party and no more than 20% or so of the American population - may well be the cause of the demise of health care reform - Obama's signature legacy legislation. If that happens it may also contribute to Obama being a one term president and have a legacy of ineffectiveness that places him alongside Jimmy Carter (no relation, thank the Lord!) for failure as president in the 20th century.

How ironic it is that the most pro-abortion president in history turns out to blow the chance to get health care reform, which for most Democrats represents the Holy Grail of politics, because of his stubborn insistence on dying on the hill of abortion. It is more than ironic: it is poetic justice.