The lone Republican who voted for the Democrats' health care reform bill in November won't support the final bill if it doesn't have the same abortion restrictions that passed in the House.Washington Times
A spokeswoman for Rep. Anh "Joseph" Cao, Louisiana Republican, said Tuesday that the lawmaker is concerned the language in the final bill is going to be closer to what passed the Senate, which he doesn't support.
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While this is the standard left-wing spin of the papal document, as exemplified by AP and Reuters' coverage of it, the Democratic politician omitted that these three issues she names are secondary to the link that Benedict XVI made between “life ethics and social ethics, fully aware that ‘a society lacks solid foundations when, on the one hand, it asserts values such as the dignity of the person, justice and peace, but then, on the other hand, radically acts to the contrary by allowing or tolerating a variety of ways in which human life is devalued and violated, especially where it is weak or marginalized.” The pope would go on to condemn “the tragic and widespread scourge of abortion...the systematic eugenic programming of births....[and] practices... [which] foster a materialistic and mechanistic understanding of human life.”
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Issue | Democrats | Republicans |
|---|---|---|
Health Care | 47% | 37% |
Education | 44% | 37% |
Social Security | 43% | 37% |
Abortion | 41% | 41% |
Economy | 39% | 45% |
Taxes | 39% | 44% |
Iraq | 37% | 45% |
Nat'l Security | 36% | 51% |
Gov't Ethics | 29% | 35% |
Immigration | 29% | 43% |
The nation's Roman Catholic bishops vowed Tuesday to forcefully confront the Obama administration over its support for abortion rights, saying the church and religious freedom could be under attack in the new presidential administration.
In an impassioned discussion on Catholics in public life, several bishops said they would accept no compromise on abortion policy. Many condemned Catholics who had argued it was morally acceptable to back President-elect Obama because he pledged to reduce abortion rates.
And several prelates promised to call out Catholic policy makers on their failures to follow church teaching. Bishop Joseph Martino of Scranton, Pa., singled out Vice President-elect Biden, a Catholic, Scranton native who supports abortion rights.
"I cannot have a vice president-elect coming to Scranton to say he's learned his values there when those values are utterly against the teachings of the Catholic Church," Martino said. The Obama-Biden press office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Associated Press
“Lately, I’ve noticed that other bishops are coming to this position,” [Archbishop Raymond] Burke told Avvenire, which is owned by the Italian bishops’ conference.
In the increasing flurry of this election season's negative political ads, the Barack Obama campaign produced a TV commercial that not only attacks Republican rival John McCain, but also takes aim at an unusual target: a 31-year-old woman who was born alive after her mother's botched abortion.
Continued on World Net Daily
Do you think abortions should be legal under any circumstances, legal only under certain circumstances, or illegal in all circumstances?
| May 2008 | May 2007 | May 2006 | |
| Legal under any circumstances | 28% | 26% | 30% |
| Legal only under certain circumstances | 54% | 55% | 53% |
| Illegal in all circumstances | 17% | 18% | 15% |
| Unsure | 2% | 1% | 2% |
Source: Gallup / USA Today
Methodology: Telephone interviews with 1.017 American adults, conducted from May 8 to May 11, 2008. Margin of error is 3 per cent.
MPs will shortly debate the law on abortion. Currently, the legal time limit for abortion is 24 weeks. Some MPs want to reduce this limit to 20 weeks. Leaving aside medical emergencies, which of these options do you favour?
| Keep the time limit at 24 weeks | 35% |
| Reduce the time limit to 20 weeks | 48% |
| Ban abortions altogether | 8% |
| Don’t know | 9% |
Source: YouGov
Methodology: Online interviews with 2,311 British adults, conducted on Mar. 13 and Mar. 14, 2008. No margin of error was provided.
Which of these statements comes closest to your own view on abortion?
| Abortion, when necessary, is a legitimate medical procedure | 39% |
| Abortion is an especially painful last resort | 31% |
| Abortion is equivalent to murder | 30% |
In which of these circumstances would an abortion be justified?
(Several answers allowed)
| If the fetus carried a grave illness | 55% |
| If the pregnancy was unplanned | 21% |
| Due to financial difficulties | 13% |
| If the fetus was not of the sex desired by the parents | 5% |
| Abortion is never justified | 32% |
Source: Mutagim Institute
Methodology: Interviews with 512 Israeli adults, conducted in December 2007. Margin of error is 4.5 per cent.
To what extent do you agree or disagree with the following statement? - It should be legal for a woman to have an abortion when she has an unwanted pregnancy
| Agree | 63% |
| Disagree | 14% |
| Neither | 16% |
| Don’t know | 4% |
| Prefer not to say | 3% |
Source: YouGov
Methodology: Online interviews with 1,983 British adults, conducted from Nov. 14 to Nov. 16, 2007. No margin of error was provided.
Do you think abortion should be legal in all cases, legal in most cases, illegal in most cases or illegal in all cases?
| Nov. 2007 | Jul. 2007 | Feb. 2007 | |
| Legal in all cases | 19% | 23% | 16% |
| Legal in most cases | 36% | 34% | 39% |
| Illegal in most cases | 27% | 28% | 31% |
| Illegal in all cases | 16% | 14% | 12% |
| No opinion | 2% | 2% | 2% |
Source: TNS / Washington Post / ABC News
Methodology: Telephone interviews with 1,131 American adults, conducted from Oct. 29 to Nov. 1, 2007. Margin of error is 3 per cent.
