Slippery Slopes

It amazes me how desensitized to things I can become. When I was a kid, if you heard "crap" or some similar word on a TV show, it was the exception--not the norm. Now, you can say all manner of things on TV that I won't print here, because I like to keep my blog G-rated.

But there's a far more troubling area that our entire country seems to have become desensitized to: abortion. When I was in college, I remember wearing my "As a former fetus, I oppose abortion" shirt with pride and vigor. There certainly weren't many who openly supported abortion. It was more of an ugly little secret. I mean, nobody wanted to get an abortion, right?

Sadly, abortion is no longer shocking or even shunned in our society. Nope, regular early-term abortions are a mere fact of life, although still unpleasant. Now we've moved on to debate partial-birth abortion. If you've never researched what this is, and have merely heard the term on a newscast, you simply must Google it. This is heinous, by anyone's standards. And yet Barack Obama has refused to vote against it, instead voting "present." A "present" vote is a coward's retreat--a meaningless vote that allows him to continue to say that he hasn't supported partial-birth abortion. Obama has voted "present" 129 times in the senate on various issues.

So we see the slippery slope: We become "okay" with abortion--nobody likes it, but it's an unpleasant necessity. Then we accept partial-birth abortion--because apparently not everyone knows they want an abortion in the early stages of pregnancy. Now it has come to this: we are actually faced with the decision of what to do when a baby survives an abortion. (Yes, it does happen.)

How could that actually even be a question? If a live baby is born, how could any doctor who has pledged to "first do no harm" let that innocent child die? And yet, it would seem that Barack Obama would allow that to happen (http://www.onetruemedia.com/shared?p=7030bd098cca768e72d111&skin_id=701&utm_source=otm&utm_medium=text_url).

We've all heard Obama say that nobody likes abortion...that he would take measures to limit abortion...but the truth is that his voting record does not back up those statements. He has been endorsed by Planned Parenthood, is openly lauded on the NARAL Pro-Choice America website, and his own words continue to reveal his stance:

• "Thirty-five years after the Supreme Court decided Roe v. Wade, it's never been more important to protect a woman's right to choose... I've been a consistent and strong supporter of reproductive justice, and have consistently had a 100% pro-choice rating with Planned Parenthood and NARAL Pro-Choice America."
• "I am pro-choice. I believe in Roe v. Wade..."
• "I've got two daughters...if they make a mistake, I don't want them punished with a baby. "

Here's a copy of his voting record:
http://www.votesmart.org/voting_category.php?can_id=9490

Granted, the Republican candidate's stance on abortion isn't as strong as I would like. But at least it appears he hasn't gone down the same slippery slope as the Democratic frontrunner.

Is there anything more important to life as we know it than life itself?