Over the past year I have received hundreds of emails lamenting pro-abortion Sen. Barack Obama's involvement in thwarting legislation to protect babies born alive after abortions. A common question was whether I ever thought this would make its way into the "mainstream media."

His pivotal role--and Obama's frantic four-year campaign to keep it a secret--has received some limited press play, particularly when the Obama campaign backed off Obama's claim that NRLC was "lying" about his role. Obama is still misrepresenting the content of the legislation. He realizes if the truth is revealed about his relentless opposition to the Illinois Born-Alive Infants Protection Act, it could prove devastating.

For those who may not remember the background, Jill Stanek, a nurse at Christ Hospital in Oak Lawn, Illinois, made public that physicians were inducing the premature delivery of unborn babies. It was not uncommon for these preemies to initially survive.

Stanek testified that these babies received no medical assessment or care. It was not even required that the babies be held. She testified that one co-worker told her that an aborted Down syndrome baby had been left to die alone in a soiled utility room.

The issue became whether a child who survives an abortion should be recognized for what he/she clearly is: a legal person. Long after playing an instrumental role in killing the Illinois Born-Alive Infants Protection Act, Obama said he would have voted for the federal bill, because it contained a clause making it clear that the bill was neutral regarding the legal status of humans before birth. In 2003 just such a clause had been added to the state bill, transforming it into a virtual clone of the federal bill, and Obama voted against it!

Obama was consistent, we have to give him that. In 2002 he also voted against a companion bill that would have required the abortionist to call in a second physician to assess the condition of the baby aborted alive.

Then state Sen. Obama said that this "is really designed simply to burden the original decision of the woman and the physician to induce labor and perform an abortion." Think about that: having a real doctor who hadn't aborted the child assess the infant's medical condition is to "burden" the decision. That's cold by anyone's standards.

Please take a moment to read Part Two.