Notre Dame and Obama's "ambiguity"

With its billions in endowment and its prestigious name, Notre Dame ought to be in the lead [on abortion]. But when asked for examples illuminating the university's unambiguous support for unborn life, [a spokesman] could provide only four: help for pregnant students who want to carry their babies to term, student volunteer work for pregnant women at local shelters, prayer mentions at campus Masses, and lectures such as a seminar on life issues. . . . At Notre Dame today, there is no pro-life organization -- in size, in funding, in prestige -- that compares with the many centers, institutes and so forth dedicated to other important issues. Perhaps this explains why a number of pro-life professors don't want to be quoted by name, lest they face career retaliation. Wall Street Journal, Belief Net

The thousands of pregnancy centers in America today, which offer material and spiritual help to women, did not exist at the time of Roe v. Wade. Will the president raise their visibility and encourage women to seek their help? Will he encourage women who don't want their babies to carry them to term so that others can adopt them? Cal Thomas

His speech was un-Barackesque in one sense - he came down from Olympus, where pay grades are seldom referred to at all, and made it plain that on the issue of human life, he does in fact disagree with those who stand for its sanctity. . . . Obama is a man of many mellifluous words, but he is also a man of many unambiguous actions, and every action he has taken to date has been a forthright dismantling of the culture of life and the wall of separation that has existed between taxpayers and abortion. FRC

[Obama's] primary campaign appealed to hard-core ideologues, while his general-election campaign made a softer pitch, aimed at attracting moderate and nonideological voters. Obama's rhetorical skill is such that he makes this like an act of depth and thoughtfulness. In fact, it is the most pedestrian of campaign tactics. WSJ

[Obama's] duplicity is most pronounced on the issue of abortion. On the one hand, he champions a mother's right to destroy her baby in the womb, presumably believing it is not a human life. But on the other, he says the decision of whether to abort has both moral and spiritual dimensions. JWR