NRL News
Page 4
Fall 2012
Volume 39
Issue 4

Ryan on Obama: “a politician who has never once lifted a hand to defend the most helpless and innocent of all human beings, the child waiting to be born”

By Dave Andrusko

On September 14 pro-life GOP Vice Presidential nominee Rep. Paul Ryan delivered a memorable speech to the Values Voter Summit. As pro-lifers gear up for the homestretch, few remarks could better illustrate what is at stake in the November 6 election or give us more motivation to work night and day. I will begin with a lengthy quote from Mr. Ryan’s address and then look at individual sections to see what they tell us about President Barack Obama:

“In 53 days, we have a choice between two very different ideas about our country – how we were meant to live, and what we were meant to be. …No politician is more skilled at striking heroic poses against imaginary adversaries. Nobody is better at rebuking nonexistent opinions. Barack Obama does this all the time, and in this campaign we are calling him on it. [Obama said]…’We’re all in this together’ – it has a nice ring. For everyone who loves this country, it is not only true but obvious. Yet how hollow it sounds coming from a politician who has never once lifted a hand to defend the most helpless and innocent of all human beings, the child waiting to be born.”

There are two very, very different ideas about “how we are meant to live, and what we were meant to be.” It is not an exaggeration to say President Obama and the Abortion Establishment are joined at the hip. And why not? They are ideological soulmates. Both believe there are never enough abortions and that any–repeat–any limitation is unacceptable.

“We don’t write anyone off in America, especially those without a voice,” Ryan said. “Every child has a place and purpose in this world. Everyone counts, and in a just society the law should stand on the side of life.”

Once upon a time Democrats were known as the party of compassion for the “little guy.” But they have no time for the littlest Americans. Mr. Romney and Mr. Ryan see unborn children in a far different way, as members of the community who call on our consciences is all the more insistence because they are so utterly helpless. Everyone counts, not just the “planned and the perfect.” And it is a stain on the honor of a society that forgets that foundational truth.

“No politician is more skilled at striking heroic poses against imaginary adversaries,” Mr. Ryan said. A Republican ‘war on women,’ anyone? Judged purely on his record, the President would soon be scanning the want ads. But his genius is to impute to others the behavior to which he is most susceptible. When this is pointed out, Mr. Obama turns criticism of his words  and actions into an indictment of America, rather than of him.

“Yet how hollow it sounds coming from a politician who has never once lifted a hand to defend the most helpless and innocent of all human beings, the child waiting to be born.”

Actually, the President HAS lifted hand, not in defense of the babies, but against them. Americans. His commitment to the abortion agenda of PPFA and NARAL Pro-Choice American, EMILY’s List, etc. is simply unparallel.

We wrote at great length on-line at National Right to Life News Today about last August’s Democratic National Convention, a pep rally for the kind of people who think Planned Parenthood is just wonderful for killing over one-quarter of the 1.2 million unborn babies aborted in American each and every year. As Rep. Ryan explained

“Giving up any further pretense of moderation on this issue, and in complete disregard of millions of pro-life Democrats, President Obama has chosen to pander to the most extreme elements of his party.

“In the Clinton years, the stated goal was to make abortion ‘safe, legal and rare.’ But that was a different time, and a different president. Now, apparently, the Obama-Biden ticket stands for an absolute, unqualified right to abortion – at any time, under any circumstances, and even at taxpayer expense.

And they call pro-lifers “extremists”!

For us there was one other enormously important component in Ryan’s speech: the Obama Administration’s shameless attack on religious liberty—the Obama Mandate. Ryan said

“This is what happened to the Catholic Church and Catholic Charities this past January, when the new mandates of ObamaCare started coming. Never mind your own conscience, they were basically told, from now on you’re going to do things the government’s way.

“Ladies and gentlemen, you would be hard pressed to find another group in America that does more to serve the health of women and their babies than the Catholic Church and Catholic Charities. And now, suddenly, we have ObamaCare bureaucrats presuming to dictate how they will do it.

“As Governor Romney has said, this mandate is not a threat and insult to one religious group – it is a threat and insult to every religious group. He and I are honored to stand with you – people of faith and concerned citizens – in defense of religious liberty.”

It was Gov. Romney who had the last and best word on this, in a speech delivered at Liberty University. He said,

“The protection of religious freedom has also become a matter of debate.  It strikes me as odd that the free exercise of religious faith is sometimes treated as a problem, something America is stuck with instead of blessed with.  Perhaps religious conscience upsets the designs of those who feel that the highest wisdom and authority comes from government.

“But from the beginning, this nation trusted in God, not man.  Religious liberty is the first freedom in our Constitution.  And whether the cause is justice for the persecuted, compassion for the needy and the sick, or mercy for the child waiting to be born, there is no greater force for good in the nation than Christian conscience in action.”