A new video has surfaced and The Brody File has the exclusive. It shows Barack Obama talking about how the human fetus is a “potential life.” (As opposed to an actual life.)
He also goes on to say that the viability of that “potential life” is a “moving target.” He made these comments in 2004 at a small business event in Springfield, Ill.
Watch below along with a partial transcription.
Here is a partial transcript from the three-minute clip:
BARACK OBAMA: My basic view is that abortion is an extraordinarily difficult moral issue. As a Christian, I think that a fetus is not just a collection of cells. It is a potential life. And I think that after viability it is legitimate for the state to prohibit late-term abortions as long as there is an exception for the mother’s life and health. Prior to viability, the problem is that this potential life is inside someone else’s body. It’s inside a woman’s body. And I don’t feel that it is appropriate for me to simply dictate to that person, to that woman what she should do with her body.
First of all, calling a fetus a “potential life” rather than an “actual life” could pose some problems for him with those socially conservative Reagan Democrat type voters who may now be reminded of Obama’s radical views on abortion, which simply do not comport with that crowd. It’s the type of remark that not only could turn these important swing voters away from Obama but toward Romney.
Remember, these Reagan Democrats might agree with Obama to a certain extent on his solutions for the economy so the Romney campaign may need to look to the cultural issues to motivate them in a different direction. That’s why remarks like this can be detrimental to Obama.
Second of all, in the video Obama says how “a fetus is not just a collection of cells.” Well, if that’s the case, then it raises the question of why Barack Obama would come out AGAINST the 2007 Supreme Court ruling that upheld partial birth abortion. If you think there is some “potential life” growing inside a woman, then wouldn’t you be against partial birth abortion?
The question is will Mitt Romney’s campaign see this as an opening or stay away from a hot button social issue like this? They could make some serious political hay with it especially in their attempt to motivate the “Cling to guns and religion” crowd (remember that line from Obama in 2008?) in key battleground states.