Posted by
Always To The Right on Sunday, November 09, 2008 1:49:01 PM
Barack Obama wants to find ways to make his mark quickly in the opening
days of his presidency and reverse the legacy of George W. Bush. Obama
will focus his efforts on the list of executive orders
that shaped White House policy, reversing them quickly. That does not
require legislative approval, but it could bring the most contentious
issues to the forefront immediately and create more polarization than
post-partisanship (via Jazz Shaw)
The other top two targets will enrage the pro-life lobby. Obama
plans to end the federal ban on funding for human embryonic stem-cell
research (hEsc) and upend the Mexico City rule that forbids federal
foreign aid to be used to promote abortion. He can expect a big
controversy on both.
The hEsc order annoys researchers who can’t get money for their
projects elsewhere, but that’s because the technology has surpassed
hEsc. Scientists have since developed plenipotentiary stem cells from
adult tissue, ending the need to destroy embryos at all. If hEsc
really held out any promise apart from other technologies, it would not
need federal funding at any rate — it would have private donors lining
up to invest in it, as other stem-cell research does.
While American voters feel some ambiguity on abortion, they
overwhelmingly do not want their tax dollars paying for or facilitating
abortions. The Mexico City rule forbade federal funds to be used to
facilitate the acquisition of abortions by groups abroad, much as the
Hyde Amendment prohibited federal funds to be used in the same manner
domestically. If Obama rescinds it, he can expect a great deal of
outrage from pro-life groups and a reopening of the debate over the use
of tax money to procure abortions anywhere.
These aren’t exactly low-hanging fruit, nor are they the acts of
someone who professed to find middle ground between pro-life and
pro-choice groups. These are the acts of a pro-abortion absolutist,
and they presage the sponsorship of Planned Parenthood’s Freedom of
Choice Act. So much for governing from the center.