{"id":817,"date":"2008-09-08T08:30:15","date_gmt":"2008-09-08T08:30:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/godometer\/2008\/09\/5-ways-obamas-new-abortion-ans.html"},"modified":"2008-09-08T08:30:15","modified_gmt":"2008-09-08T08:30:15","slug":"5-ways-obamas-new-abortion-ans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godometer\/2008\/09\/5-ways-obamas-new-abortion-ans.html","title":{"rendered":"5 Ways Obama&#8217;s Abortion Answer Helps With Cultural Conservatives"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><object width=\"425\" height=\"344\"><param name=\"movie\" value=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/mgcI5iMr1Lw&#038;hl=en&#038;fs=1\"><\/param><param name=\"allowFullScreen\" value=\"true\"><\/param><embed src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/mgcI5iMr1Lw&#038;hl=en&#038;fs=1\" type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" width=\"425\" height=\"344\"><\/embed><\/object><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/stevenwaldman\/2008\/09\/farewell-to-the-obamagelicals.html\">Steve Waldman notes<\/a> that after his year-and-a-half long campaign to target evangelicals and other cultural conservatives, Barack Obama is jeopardizing the outreach with a <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/godometer\/2008\/08\/mccains-surprise-triumph-at-sa.html\">less-than-stellar appearance at Saddleback<\/a> last month his new ads <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/godometer\/2008\/09\/obamas-new-prochoice-ad-silent.html\">hitting McCain over his pro-life views<\/a>.Obama&#8217;s interview yesterday on ABC&#8217;s This Week with George Stephanopoulos focused on the abortion issue only for a couple minutes, but Obama said a lot that could help him with more socially conservative voters:1. He admitted that his answer at Saddleback Forum regarding when a baby is entitled to human rights begins&#8211;&#8220;answering that question with specificity is above my pay grade,&#8221;&#8211;was &#8220;probably&#8221; too flip.2. He brought his religion into it: &#8220;What I intended to say is that, as a Christian, I have a lot of humility about understanding when does the soul enter into &#8230; It&#8217;s a pretty tough question. And so, all I meant to communicate was that I don&#8217;t presume to be able to answer these kinds of theological questions.&#8221;3. He framed the abortion issue as a moral one, rather than toe the ol&#8217; &#8220;keep your rosaries off my ovaries&#8221; line of the pro-choice movement: &#8220;What I do know is that abortion is a moral issue, that it&#8217;s one that families struggle with all the time. And that in wrestling with those issues, I don&#8217;t think that the government criminalizing the choices that families make is the best answer for reducing abortions.&#8221;4. He floated a vague plan for reducing abortion: &#8220;I think the better answer&#8230; is to figure out, how do we make sure the young mothers, or women who have a pregnancy that&#8217;s unexpected or difficult, have the kind of support they need to make a whole range of choices, including adoption and keeping the child.&#8221;5. He was able to cite language in his party&#8217;s platform that&#8217;s aimed at reducing demand for abortion, giving ballast to his abortion-reduction rhetoric.None of that is likely to win over ardent pro-lifers, who are thrilled over McCain&#8217;s Palin pick. But Obama&#8217;s sensitivity yesterday on the abortion question could make culturally conservative voters in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Florida less morally queasy about supporting him.<!--more-->7<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Steve Waldman notes that after his year-and-a-half long campaign to target evangelicals and other cultural conservatives, Barack Obama is jeopardizing the outreach with a less-than-stellar appearance at Saddleback last month his new ads hitting McCain over his pro-life views.Obama&#8217;s interview yesterday on ABC&#8217;s This Week with George Stephanopoulos focused on the abortion issue only for&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-barack-obama"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - 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