Obama Gets Heated on Born Alive Infant Protection Act

08-16-2008

It seems like Barack Obama’s heated answer about The Born Alive Infant Protection Act is making some headlines out there. The Brody File has decided to break out this clip of video by itself rather than having you sit through the whole 5 minute interview. The transcription is below. Clearly, the conversation over this bill has gotten Obama riled up. He truly believes The National Life to Right Committee is lying about this controversial infanticide bill which he opposed. He is adamant in saying that the bill he opposed in the Illinois State Senate was NOT the same as the federal legislation that pro-choice Senators even voted for. The National Right to Life Committee is pointing to a document that shows how Obama voted against a bill that had the federal language in it so they say Obama is misleading people because of past conflicting stories. The Obama campaign says the Illinois bill had added language that would have watered down Roe. The whole thing can get a little confusing. In future posts we will lay out the arguments on both sides. For now, research it yourself. Just remember, everything you read on the Internet isn’t always true!

Watch the video above and the transcription below.

Brody: Real quick, the Born Alive Infant Protection Act. I gotta tell you that's the one thing I get a lot of emails about and it's just not just from Evangelicals, it about Catholics, Protestants, main -- they're trying to understand it because there was some literature put out by the National Right to Life Committee. And they're basically saying they felt like you misrepresented your position on that bill.

Obama: Let me clarify this right now.

Brody: Because it's getting a lot of play.

Obama: Well and because they have not been telling the truth. And I hate to say that people are lying, but here's a situation where folks are lying. I have said repeatedly that I would have been completely in, fully in support of the federal bill that everybody supported - which was to say --that you should provide assistance to any infant that was born - even if it was as a consequence of an induced abortion. That was not the bill that was presented at the state level. What that bill also was doing was trying to undermine Roe vs. Wade. By the way, we also had a bill, a law already in place in Illinois that insured life saving treatment was given to infants.

So for people to suggest that I and the Illinois medical society, so Illinois doctors were somehow in favor of withholding life saving support from an infant born alive is ridiculous. It defies commonsense and it defies imagination and for people to keep on pushing this is offensive and it's an example of the kind of politics that we have to get beyond. It's one thing for people to disagree with me about the issue of choice, it's another thing for people to out and out misrepresent my positions repeatedly, even after they know that they're wrong. And that's what's been happening.

Brody: I wanted to give you a chance to clear it up.

Obama: I appreciate it.

Brody: Thank you so much.

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