Obama Plays Offense Asserting Pro-Education, Pro-Prevention, Pro-Choice Values

No one will be able to accuse Sen. Barack Obama of not making his pro-education, pro-prevention, pro-choice values clear in this election.

Unlike ghosts of Democrats past that hemmed and hawed, straddling hot-button issues like abortion by playing defense against the harsh tactics and misinformation spread by far-right social conservatives, Obama has clearly stated his beliefs and aggressively defended his values. He shaped his party's platform to reflect values that both pro-choice and pro-life Democrats embraced, and spoke clearly to all Americans by saying in his acceptance speech "We may not agree on abortion, but surely we can agree on reducing the number of unintended pregnancies in this country."

Polling has consistently suggested that a majority of Americans agree abortion should remain legal with some restrictions, but few candidates have been willing to take on the more aggressive far right and their extreme tactics. Even Congressional Democrats who regained the majority in 2006 have been reluctant to stand up to the far right on issues like abstinence-only-until-marriage programs, contraception and reproductive health issues. Democrats (pro-life and pro-choice) along with pro-choice Republicans made efforts by introducing pro-education and pro-prevention legislation, but when votes were required on continuing abstinence-only funding and integrating reproductive health services with HIV prevention in the US global AIDS legislation known as PEPFAR, the far-right held Congress hostage.

The Associated Press today talks about how Sen. John McCain, "seems content with the public's perception that he's more moderate on the issue" of abortion while Obama is educating voters about McCain's real position which advocates making abortion illegal. The GOP platform rejected pro-choice Republicans completely, calling for a constitutional amendment to ban abortion. McCain touts his pro-life record, says he will appoint Supreme Court Justices that will overturn Roe v. Wade, and selected a running mate in Gov. Sarah Palin who believes abortion should be banned even in cases of rape and incest.

Politically, Obama's embrace of the education and prevention agenda long encompassed in the phrase "pro-choice" represents a shift away from abortion politics as usual. Too often mainstream media and advocacy organizations on both sides have missed the nuance of sexual and reproductive health issues, and assumed a candidate's position on abortion defined them on many other issues.

McCain seems to adhere to the far right playbook of the '70's and '80's that many voters are familiar with: run to the right in the primaries and then attempt to appeal to moderates in the general election, and finally govern from the far-right if elected. As soon as his nomination was secure, statements about his wife's more moderate position on abortion started to emerge, and even Palin repeated the correct talking point about "reaching out to the other side" in her interview with Charlie Gibson.

In this election, the attention to the full range of sexual and reproductive health issues in the mainstream media coverage, sensational as it often is, is giving voters and candidates a chance to talk about how these very personal and private issues translate to public policies in our pluralistic democracy.

Susan Cohen, director of government affairs at the Guttmacher Institute said, "Obama's strong stance on prevention and his common-sense positions make for smart politics, and it makes sense that he would want to let the electorate know where he stands on the issue. His views on abortion rights more closely correspond to where the majority of Americans stand than those of John McCain."

"Obama's positions and votes in favor of making abortion less necessary by promoting a real prevention agenda are light years ahead of McCain's, who has actually voted against policies and programs that would make a real difference in reducing unintended pregnancy to begin with," Cohen added.

NARAL Pro-Choice America issued a poll earlier this year about how pro-choice values play, particularly in swing states. According to an article about the poll in U.S News and World Report, "women voters in states including Florida, Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, [pollster Al] Quinlan says that Obama gained 13 points among pro-choice independent women and 9 points among pro-choice Republican women once they were presented with what the pollsters called 'a balanced description of the candidates' respective positions on choice.'"

Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America said, "Sen. Obama is consistently strong in expressing his pro-choice values, and that message not only energizes our pro-choice base but it connects with swing voters, especially the moderate independent women who will decide this election. The Obama campaign's approach underscores what we've known for a long time: choice is a winning issue."

Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood Action Fund said, "When it comes to women's health and rights, including protecting Roe v. Wade, the choice is clear. Barack Obama has a long and consistent record of standing up for women's health. John McCain has voted against women's health 125 times, including voting against affordable birth control. He wants to overturn Roe v. Wade. Not enough voters know how out of touch McCain is when it comes to women's health. The more voters, particularly women, learn about the striking differences between Obama and McCain on women's health, the more likely they will be to support Obama."

During the campaign so far, voters have had a chance to get beyond the surface slogans and really examine pro-choice vs. pro-life values on a range of sexual and reproductive health issues.

Last week the nation was treated to a teachable moment on age appropriate comprehensive sex ed as the McCain campaign attacked Obama in ads that have been widely criticized as being inaccurate, both about the Illinois legislation the ad questioned, and fact that most people think it is in children's best interest to grow up with a healthy sense of body and self, and be able to protect themselves from pedophile priests, teachers, family members.

With Gov. Sarah Palin's explosion on the national scene we've also witnessed discussion about the failures of abstinence-only-until-marriage-programs and the reality of teen pregnancy. Voters are discussing what works and what doesn't with respect to education and prevention, within families where all private choices should be made and respected, and as a matter of public health for parents who are concerned about the education and information given to their children. Parents can and should teach sexual health and respect in the home, but eventually they encounter the world, and comprehensive sex ed is about creating a base line of factual, age appropriate, evidence-based, reliable scientific data all parents and kids can use to learn respect and personal responsibility.

Often overlooked, voters are also seeing how candidates deal with the difficult issue of violence against women and rape, and the subjugation stemming from a culture that allows women to be abused.

Voters also have a front row seat for the Quadrennial Catholic Intramurals with Obama's selection of Sen. Joe Biden as his running mate. Biden's ability to separate his private faith from public duty, a view shared overwhelmingly by lay Catholics, raised the hackles of the far more political hierarchy of the church, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

The one issue that has not yet been explicitly discussed by the campaigns is contraception, which is currently under a very real and dangerous threat from far-right social conservatives. McCain was asked about insurance coverage for contraception, relative to the fact Viagra is widely covered, and was visibly uncomfortable before making no comment.

The Bush Administration is already attempting to make contraception access more difficult, which is counter-intuitive to most Americans who use contraception to avoid unintended pregnancies and thus reduce abortions. The final few days for public commenting on a rule change proposed by the Bush Department of Health and Human Services are ticking away (Sept. 25 is the deadline, register your comments here) and it seems logical that if the campaigns are going to talk about all of these other sexual and reproductive health issues, a more direct conversation about contraception access and affordability is also in order.

Looming over all of these discussions about sexual and reproductive health is the Supreme Court and the appointment of the next two or three Justices. If Roe v. Wade is overturned abortion will be banned in 23 states in an instant and the door will be open for Congress to legislate a federal ban in all 50 states, ensuring the extreme politics of the far right will continue to divide the nation. Banning abortion will not stop abortion, only make criminals out of women and doctors, and endanger their health and lives.

In addition, one of the precedents upon which Roe is based, Griswold v. Connecticut, could also be threatened. Griswold challenged a law prohibiting the use of contraception based on a privacy claim, underscoring yet again the threat to contraception, even though access and affordability remains an issue for far too many people.

Originally posted at RH Reality Check.

Comments

[sunnybunny]

Finally!! A democrat not afraid of speaking up on the issue of sex and values and not being afraid to talk about PREVENTION and choice. I hope he does an ad on this subject and talks about his strong young white mother who had a black baby in 1961 (from what I can remember that must have been a little tough) and went on to earn several college degrees and travel the world etc. Maybe discussing how having a choice doesn't mean baby-killing, it means deciding for yourself what you want to do in your life maybe even ahead of time like deciding to use protection.Why not promote monogamy and waiting until you're ready and with someone you trust to have sex and being responsible about it? Don't most of us believe in that?

[gisellestwocents]

The JM/SP are trying to nuance the issue just enough to make it a non-issue for the election. The "let the states decide" approach that SP offered up on ABC gives some confidence that electing JM and SP will not really result in an abortion ban even though the obvious agenda is to keep chipping away at the right until it disappears. It doesn't even make any sense to "leave it up to the states." The equal protection clause should come into play there. How can a woman have privacy rights to her own body in some states while women in others do not. Ridiculous.

They call Dems intrusive for supporting sex ed while they want to dictate what a woman can do with her own body. It's mind-boggling to me...

The Repubs dangle a woman as bait to set women's right back 50 years!!! Amazing!

[Clavis]

Once again, we have a situation where the people on the left are willing to compromise, to accept shades of grey, to listen to the other side and try to find common ground, while the people on the right demonize the left as "baby-killers" who are part of a "culture of death" and declare how proud they are to be unshakable in their beliefs (which after all come from God's own inspiration and revelation!).

Why is it always the liberals and progressives who have to bend over backwards to meet the other side halfway -- especially when all the other side does it kick us and call us names?

[sunnybunny]

I've got an answer for you. Because we understand the complexity of the issue. They make us look bad by pushing us to argue to the other extreme when most of us don't even feel that way.

We need to rise above stereotyping each other. Most of us want people to have options and be free to choose whats right for them. Until we learn to respect each other more, listen to and appreciate the others point of view, and work together, this is going to continue.

[Unrepentantliberal]

We just have to play offense, not defense. The repubs have given us a a thousand miles of rope with which to hang them without having to resort to lies, half lies, untruths, or anything remotely resembling a blow 'below the proverbial belt.'

We just to speak the truth and hammer it home time after time after time till we win.

[PumaAnn]

The country is horribly divided on this issue, and it's simply NOT worth the fight. We have bigger issues that we can work through.

[milo h minderbinder]

You keep posting on this, but I'm not sure what you're actually suggesting.

If you don't think sex ed works, and you don't think abstinence only works, than what do you propose? Is obama just supposed to ignore it when McCain attacks him on this?

[gisellestwocents]

Well, the half that doesn't believe in abortion DON'T HAVE TO UNDERGO ABORTIONS. Why should they get to dictate what the other half does?

A fundamental privacy right is being jeopardized and that is HUGE. Why is that not worth the fight? Because YOU don't like abortion or YOU'RE past your childbearing years and the heck with what the next woman wants or what the consequences of an unplanned pregnancy are to her?

[girlwild]

What people forget is that it is about women's reproductive freedom, their right to do what is best for themselves and their families, with consultation from their doctor in private, with all options available to them, pros and cons explained. Access to abortion is only one of the choices that women can make.

Men, also, have reproductive freedom, they can choose to abstain, wear condoms, or take the men's pill. They can choose when they will father children and with whom, at the time of intercourse.

Once intercourse takes place, the woman is then in charge of her body and what happens to it.

We are not incubators, to serve as hosts for parasitic fetuses at the demand of government, the fathers, or anyone else for that matter.

Until women's reproductive rights are fully recognized by everyone, women are no more than chattel, regardless of the right to vote.

The Democrats are closer to recognizing women's reproductive rights than are the Republicans. So the only conclusion to be drawn is that Republicans regards women as little more than chattel, regardless of their putting a woman in the #2 position on the ticket.

Until the moderate Republicans retake their party, we are doomed to a renaissance of the Dark Ages if McCain is elected.

[RepugsOut08]

It's like the old pro-choice saying goes, if men got pregnant, abortion clinics would be on every corner with drive-thrus.
Why is it that so many pro-lifers seem to have no trouble supporting the life taking death machine that is the Iraq war, or vote for administrations like Bush's that keep millions of children in poverty with their policies?

[lisakaz2]

Every parent (or so I thought) wants their child to be prepared for life. Ignorance is not a shield from crimes (like pedaphilia even) nor from the complications from sex. Any survey of the Victorian period shows that quite well: women were ignorant and vulnerable and at times terribly victimized.

What parent wants their child to be involved in a teenaged pregnancy? Is that really "small town" values? Geez, I grew up in a small town and my parents never gave me that impression.

[TroubleNYC]

Obama is right on this issue. We need to get away from the issue of abortion and address the issue of unwanted pregnancies. Particularly with teenagers. Abstinence-only programs just don't work and are just unrealistic. The problem is that the far-right believes that if you teach teens about safe sex then they'll just cut school and go have wild orgies. Give these kids a bit more credit. If they come from a good, stable home where they're taught about responsibility and being accountable for your own actions, they will be just fine.

The abortion issue will never be settled with that old mindset about Roe v. Wade. I don't think it'll ever really be overturned and it'll continue to be used by both sides as a wedge issue.

[preemptivelove]

bristol palin is a poster child for abstinence only.

wow, taking the abortion issue and addressing its complexity instead of hurting women, children and familes by making it a wedge issue. what a concept!

that's LEADERSHIP. i know we don't recognize it because we haven't seen it in so long.

[PumaAnn]

This is just plain ridiculous.

I work to mentor women. Try telling them they need to insist on protection. They will not do it. Why?

Low self-esteeem.

You want to help young women?

Stop turning every woman who DARES to run for public office into the target of smears.

Women get the message. It's OK to be smart, so long as you're not really a threat to some guy with political aspirations.

This is the issue. This is the challenge.

Don't even try to sell the notion that telling kids in kindergarten about bad touching is remotely close to addressing the issue.

It's a stupid solution. It upsets half of the population.

Worse, it doesn't work.

[sunnybunny]

Maybe Palin's crazy religion doesn't believe in using birth control. That would explain a lot.

[lisakaz2]

No public figure is willing to state what has become obvious: the Reichwingers are fully aware that their program does not work. They don't care. They want more potential soldiers for deployment. If you read between the lines, you see they are pro-birth and could care less for the quality of life being produced by these often difficult economic circumstances.

[PumaAnn]

Neither do programs that promote safe sex.

They don't work either.

[milo h minderbinder]

Source?

[Grunty1]

The charts of teen pregnancy and abortions say otherwise.
When a Democrat is in office, both fall. When Repoublicans are in office, both increase.