Barack Obama's "Freedom of Choice Act" Would Mean 125K More Abortions

LifeNews.com Note: Matt is an attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund, a leading pro-life law firm. This article concerns the so-called Freedom of Choice Act that presidential candidate Barack Obama said he would make signing his first action as president.

With so much attention on the economy, one area of federal legislation that can be overlooked is abortion. An old and dangerous bill that will increase abortions by an enormous amount is being resurrected by abortion advocates: the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA). H.R. 1964 and S.1173.

FOCA is usually reported as “codifying Roe v. Wade,” but it is much more. Since the Webster and Casey decisions in 1989 and 1992, the Supreme Court has allowed states to limit abortion somewhat by such things as requiring parental involvement and informed consent, prohibiting government funding of most abortion, and more recently outlawing most partial birth abortions.

But FOCA tolerates none of this. Advocates and opponents of FOCA all agree that the bill would nullify every legal limit on abortion, state, federal or otherwise. Americans United for Life, as well as the Family Research Council, explain this fact in great detail. Abortion advocates who want FOCA concur: NOW, NARAL, Planned Parenthood, and FOCA sponsor Senator Barbara Boxer all contend that FOCA will strike down all state pro-life laws.

The shockwaves that FOCA would cause are immense and wide-ranging, but recent research shows one effect in particular. Certain state laws that are doomed under FOCA actually prevent a statistically significant number of abortions. These laws include parental involvement requirements, informed consent laws, and restrictions on government funding of abortions.

Specifically, if FOCA is passed it will increase abortions by 125,000 more per year in the United States. Since 2004, Dr. Michael New has published studies with the Heritage Foundation showing that a large reduction in abortions can be attributed to these three kinds of laws.

Even considering other reduction factors such as change in public opinion, Dr. New’s regression analysis shows that parental involvement laws in a state lead to 0.54 fewer abortions per 1000 women of childbearing age, informed consent laws lead to 0.92 fewer, and state restrictions on Medicaid funding lead to 2.08 fewer.

Both pro-life and pro-abortion organizations tell us which states have these laws in place: 36 states have parental involvement laws, 26 states have informed consent laws, and 34 states have funding restrictions.

The U.S. Census Bureau gives us projections for 2009 of females age 15-44 in each of these states. Then it’s a simple matter of cross-referencing the number of women of childbearing age in each state with each abortion restriction, and applying Dr. New’s ratio. The grand total number of abortions reduced by these laws is 124,947.6, per year.

This is a minimum. FOCA will strike down other laws, state and federal, that reduce abortions, and will force states to facilitate abortions. 125,000 more abortions is only the tip of the FOCA iceberg.

Even with this minimum, that’s 125,000 children that were not killed this year because we have these laws, and 125,000 children (added to the existing 1.3 million abortions) who will be killed in 2009 and every year after if FOCA is passed. FOCA is indeed a staggering expansion of abortion, both in principle and in actual lives lost.

If Dems obtain control of both houses and the oval office, this horrendous “law” will go into effect. With a liberal democrat appointing SCOTUS justices, it will be upheld.

In addition, we can expect the homosexual agenda to go full bloom, plus many, as yet, unimagined horrors. Not to mention that an Obama presidency will signal to Russia, Iran, et. al. that America is ripe for the taking.

It will be the end of the United States as we have known them. Both from inside and outside influences. This is a dark prospect.

I don’t see where the Constitution gives Congress the authority to regulate (or not regulate) abortion on a national level.

You don't see it because it isn't there.

But in 1973 seven old men with better eyesight than mere mortals found that they could clearly see an ethereal "penumbra" emanating from the old parchment that granted women a theretofore non-existent right to hire professional baby killers to relieve them of the inconvenience and responsibility associated with bringing a child into the world.

Since that second Day of Infamy, approximately 50,000,000 prebirth and postbirth babies have been murdered in America by hired killers masquerading as medical doctors here in the nation founded by moral, mostly Christian men who would be appalled beyond incredulity at how the primarily God-fearing nation they created has been transformed by a mere 7 men in black robes into a virtual slaughterhouse for pre-birth, and in many instances post-birth, innocent, helpless, American babies whose lives have been deemed less valuable than the invented "right" of their mothers to be free from the burden that would be imposed by allowing their own sons and daughters to live beyond their brief lives in the womb.

The most apropos thought that comes to my mind when I think of what horrors America's own holocaust is responsible for and will inevitably answer to God for is the shortest verse in the Bible, John 11:35, "Jesus wept".

Barack Obama is a baby-killing machine.

But John McCain is just as bad. Deadly poison is deadly poison, no matter what deceptive label might be on the bottle.

The constant lying and spinning by “Life News” on behalf of John Judas McCain stinks.

They are once again sadly mistaken if they think this is some kind of a numbers “game,” as this article suggests.

This is about the securing of the Blessings of Liberty to our posterity and the protection of the unalienable right to life for ALL.

“Life News” and most of the rest of the “name” pro-life groups have abandoned this most fundamental self-evident truth. They’re Esau, trading our heritage and our posterity for a paltry bowl of temporary political soup.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.