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TITLE:
BORNALIVETRUTH.ORG ATTACKS PRESIDENT OBAMA

NAME:

NICKOLE GAMBRILL

COURSE:

INTEREST GROUPS AND PUBLIC POLICY

INSTRUCTOR:

PROFESSOR TONI MARZOTTO

DATE:

JUNE 18, 2009

WORD COUNT: (1,373)

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“You know, I imagine the view from your largely unscutinized place in history must be

very different from mine. But I’d remind you, sir that I have the following things to negotiate: an

opposition Congress, special interests with power beyond belief, and a bitchy media[ CITATION

IMD09 \l 1033 ],” said Josiah Bartlet , a character who played the President on a popular television

series The West Wing. An interest group’s primary focus in a campaign is to get the issue that

they are most concerned with heard, and their issue ads can make or break a candidate’s image.

An interest group usually will back a person running for office directly or indirectly in a

campaign without a candidate’s consent. They get their voice heard by airing campaign ads

starting about a year before primary and general elections, maybe even earlier.

Private interests are funded through some corporations as well as individuals, and

therefore at the end of a campaign ad will have the statement endorsed by their particular group

and is in no way representing the view of a specific candidate. Some campaign ads will show a

candidate’s image stating that to vote for a candidate would be to vote for or against a particular

issue. These ads are commonly known as issue ads, and are sometimes embellishments to the

truth, and do not honestly portray the person who is mentioned in the ad in their sincere opinions.

A great amount of issue ads are bias and use word play to twist what a candidate may have

mentioned in a debate or speech, targeting certain citizens to view the person in a negative light

to sway their vote.

An issue that has been a controversial topic is abortion since the Roe v. Wade Supreme

Court decision of 1973 declaring abortion illegal granting a woman her right to choose to keep

her baby or terminate the pregnancy. Some people do consider abortion to be murder, and that

there shouldn’t be any reason allowing a woman to kill her child. On one hand, an argument

being made was it isn’t considered murder if a child hasn’t taken its first breath. However, there
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have been court cases where a person has been convicted of double murder when a woman who

was killed was with child.

A popular and controversial Campaign Advertisement, which was under much scrutiny,

is the BornAliveTruth.org ad. This ad, which I viewed on youtube.com, portrays current

President Barack Obama as a baby killer. It accuses him of voting four times against the Illinois

Born-Alive Infant Defined Act, when he was serving in Congress as a Senator of Illinois. The

article’s spokesperson is Gianna Jesson who is a survivor of an abortion that was not fully

terminated. Her argument is that with the procedure of an abortion, some babies who do make it,

are left to die because it goes against the mother’s original choice to keep her child, and in legal

terms the fetus, even if born alive, is not legally referred to as a child because then abortions

would be illegal, hence the fact it being illegal to kill a child.

The purpose of the Illinois Born-Alive Infant Defined Act, is to put pressure on doctors to

take better care of fetuses that aren’t fully terminated in an abortion. There have been claims that

these fetuses, since they are unwanted, are left in a backroom of the abortion clinics to die, which

was the original plan. Gianna Jesson was a great person to choose to speak on the issue, because

it affects her directly. I do agree that she is a very powerful and motivating speaker, who

encouraged me to do further delve into on the issue. As for slandering President Barack Obama’s

name, I do not agree with her. The ad portrays President Obama as a cold-hearted malicious baby

killer, as If he is not a proud father of two beautiful young ladies. The ad was not truthful at all.

When I did research these claims against Obama, I found that there were four votes on

the issue, but he did not vote ‘no’ four times. I believe the first time that the Senate Bill 1093 was

introduced on March 30, 2001 Barack Obama explained his disposition and voted ‘present’ on
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the bill as not to say if he was for or against it. His reasoning was the terminology used in the

bill. He did not agree with a fetus that was intended to be aborted, being classified as a child. In

his comparison, Obama said to be classified as a child, or an infant, would be giving it the same

rights as a nine month old child, which goes against the wishes of the mother in the first place.

Furthermore, he goes on to say that to classify it as a baby, treating it within the same regards as

a child would provide an injustice to the woman who wanted her labor induced to perform an

abortion[ CITATION Sta01 \l 1033 ].

I think that this ad would be likely to change some viewers’ minds, and I believe it was

targeted mainly to women who are pro-life and not pro-choice. It targets the voters who are

against infanticide. Infanticide is defined as the killing of a baby after it has already been born.

Some clinics reported babies who survived induced labor abortions, being left to die in the room

with soaked linen. Also, reports have been made that babies were being issued birth certificates,

then death certificates shortly after. There are a lot of interest groups dedicated to banning

abortions, and are dedicated to shutting down one of the largest abortion providers in the United

States of America which is Planned Parenthood. I do not think that it would be fair to shut down

the clinic because they offer many different options for young women, not just abortion.

Bornalivetruth.org classifies their group as a non-partisan 527 tax-exempt organization.

Even with the passage of the Infant Born Alive Act in 2002, they seek to educate the public and

inform them about this issue, and how their legislative efforts can help influence government in

their policymaking decisions[ CITATION Bor09 \l 1033 ]. For, it is less likely to defeat a political

battle without the assistance of the public and their opinions[ CITATION Ber07 \p 16 \l 1033 ]. This

particular interest group created the website because despite the passage of the act in 2002

making it unlawful to kill or dispose of an abortion survivor, these babies are still being killed
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today. The organization doesn’t seek to endorse a candidate, only to speak on behalf of the

babies who cannot speak for themselves. Fortunately, Gianna Jesson survived her attempted

termination to speak for the cause, and to show that these babies have a chance at a future, and if

born alive should be given that right, no matter if that’s not what the mother’s intentions were.

I could not find out specifically where the Gianna ad was ran, but I am led to believe that

it was ran in Chicago, where now President Barack Obama held the position of a Senator in

2004. I think this ad could have played a major part in his election, if people did not do

additional research to find out Obama’s real stance on an issue. I think to attack President

Obama, as if he is the sole cause and source of the problem is unjust and unfair. His stance on the

bill was not properly addressed in the campaign ad attacking his character. Obama is for saving

babies, but was against using the term child, because it gives the attempted abortion the same

rights as child, and therefore making abortion illegal and unconstitutional. The ad was not

truthful, and this is shown by Obama’s overwhelmingly popularity in being elected as the United

States of America 44th President.

Bibliography
(n.d.). Retrieved June 18, 2009, from BornAliveTruth.org: www.BornAliveTruth.org/team.php

Assembly, S. o. (2001, March 30). Senate Transcript. Illinois, USA.

Berry, J. M. (2007). The Interest Group Society. New York: Library of Congress.

The Internet Movie Database. (n.d.). Retrieved June 11, 2009, from www.imdb.com