Thursday, October 16, 2008

If It Sounds Incredible...It's Uhhh...Probably True

MCCAIN: "Sen. Obama, as a member of the Illinois state Senate, voted in the Judiciary Committee against a law that would provide immediate medical attention to a child born in a failed abortion. He voted against that."

OBAMA: "If it sounds incredible that I would vote to withhold lifesaving treatment from an infant, that's because it's not true."

THE FACTS: As a state senator, Obama opposed three legislative efforts, in 2001, 2002 and 2003, to give legal protections to any aborted fetus that showed signs of life. The 2003 measure was virtually identical to a bill President Bush signed into law in 2002 — a bill that passed before Obama was in the U.S. Senate, but one that Obama said he would have supported. The state of Illinois already had a law to protect aborted fetuses born alive and considered able to survive. Among those opposed to the state effort was the Illinois State Medical Society, which argued that the bill would interfere with the doctor-patient relationship and expand civil liability for doctors. Critics said the proposed legislation would have undermined the landmark Supreme Court case on abortion, Roe v. Wade, in ways the federal law would not.
— The Associated Press



And don't even get me started about the Late Term Abortion Issue. I wish McCain would have mentioned this. And just in case, here is a small reminder of why this is a hot topic to me;

Barrington says that in recent years survival rates for premature babies have increased due to the medical technology now available. At 28 weeks more than 96 percent of babies survive; at 24 weeks the rate is 50 percent; and at 22 weeks, two percent. The third trimester starts at week 27, and the baby weighs only about 2 lbs. During the procedure, the doctor almost fully delivers a baby who has almost a 90% survival rate if it were born premature.

No comments: