Topic: NewsBusters
Matthew Sheffield uses an Aug. 24 NewsBusters post to try and deflect fro the Todd Akin controversy by purporting to tell "the actual position of President Barack Obama" on abortion. But he misleads in doing so, asserting that Obama has come out "in favor of allowing an abortionist to let a born alive infant die outside of his/her mother's womb." Sheffield claims this demonstrates "who the real extremist on the subject of abortion is."
That same day, a NewsBusters post by Chuck Donovan echoed Sheffield in claiming that Obama opposed "a law guaranteeing equal treatment for children born alive after failed abortions."
In fact, Illinois already had a law requiring medical care for a viable fetus that survived an abortion. What Sheffield and Donovan are apparently referring to are efforts in 2001, 2002, and 2003 to expand that law with a "born alive" clause requiring that any fetus that survived an abortion, even ones that could not survive outside the womb, receive medical care. Obama has said he opposed those bills because the law would likely have been struck down in the courts for giving legal status to fetuses, a requirement that a second doctor be present at abortions, and their lack of a "neutrality clause" to make sure the bill would not affect current abortion laws.
Taking Obama's votes out of context -- context that demonstrates Obama is not the "extremist" Sheffield claims he is -- shows the extremes Sheffield and Donovan will go to smear Obama and defend Akin's extreme no-exceptions rule on abortion.
