Obama 'Should Not Forget' Promise To Bridge Differences In Abortion-Rights Debate, Washington Post Opinion Piece Says

Main Category: Abortion
Article Date: 18 Nov 2008 - 7:00 PDT

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Although President-elect Barack Obama's "most urgent task is to repair an ailing economy," he "should not forget that one of the most inspiring aspects of his campaign was his call to 'turn the page' on spiteful conflicts that have pitted believers against nonbelievers, cultural conservatives against cultural liberals, red states against blue states," columnist E.J Dionne writes in a Washington Post opinion piece. According to Dionne, "One of the best places for Obama to start the healing process would seem the most unlikely: our decades-long conflict over abortion."

Dionne writes that although "common ground on abortion is hard to find" -- given that both sides of the issue are not "prepared to give up on their core principles" -- "a very large number of Americans are simultaneously uneasy with a government ban on abortion and with abortion itself." He adds, "Substantial majorities would not make abortion illegal, but they would like fewer of them."

According to Dionne, Obama "might be tempted" to postpone action on his ideas for reducing unintended pregnancies, "issue pro-choice executive orders that the abortion-rights movement expects, and move back to the sagging economy." However, doing so "would be both politically foolish and a breach of faith with the pro-life progressives who came to Obama's defense during the campaign" by arguing that he "truly was committed to reducing the number of abortions," Dionne writes. He adds that Obama should draw lessons from President Clinton, who during his 1992 campaign said abortion should be "safe, legal and rare." However, Dionne notes, although abortion rates dropped 11% during Clinton's time in office, because he "made no major public moves on abortion reduction, many pro-lifers who had been inclined this way felt he had ignored the third word in his motto." Dionne writes, "There's no reason for Obama to make the same mistake -- and no reason for advocates of abortion rights to get in the way of his trying to build a new consensus."

Election day exit polls showed that more than 60% of Obama supporters described themselves as either "moderate" or "conservative," according to Dionne. "These voters don't want Obama to be timid on his core economic promises, but they do expect him to govern as the cultural moderate he promised to be," he writes, concluding, "He should not lose his chance to make cultural warfare a quaint relic of the past" (Dionne, Washington Post, 11/14).

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