Ouroboros -2-: Hecklers Unhinge Clinton

CORRECTION: Frank Beckwith has posted a correction about the hecklers in this story. Apparently, the hecklers were not students of Steubenville, although there were pro-life students who protested but did not heckle.

Bill Clinton Comes Unhinged at Hecklers in Ohio

I've made it a point to avoid blogging on politics (or politicians). It just doesn't fit well with what I've got going on here; but when a key issue is also unavoidably political, it's well, unavoidable.

What happens when a staunchly pro-abortion politician stumps for another staunchly pro-abortion politician at a pro-life Catholic university? Blessed beauty. Last Sunday (February 17), Bill Clinton was heckled by pro-life students at Ohio's Steubenville University for his support for abortion on demand during his administration. LifeNews.com and FoxNews.com covered this event in snippets, capturing Clinton's rebuttal:

“We had the lowest teen pregnancy rate since the statistics had been kept when we were doing that. And guess what? Without overturning Roe v. Wade, or trying to keep people all torn up and upset or calling them killers, the abortion rate went down almost 20 percent on our watch.”

And then this after more heckling:

“We disagree with you. You want to criminalize women and their doctors and we disagree. … If you were really pro-life, you would want to put every doctor and every mother as an accessory to murder in prison. And you won’t say you want to do that because you know that, because you know that you wouldn’t have a lick of political support. Now, the issue is who, the issue is, you can't name me anybody presently in politics that did more to introduce policies that reduce the number of real abortions instead of the hot air putting out to tear people up and make votes by dividing America. This is not your rally. I heard you. That's another thing you need is a president, somebody who will stick up for individual rights and not be pushed around, and she won't.”

Bill Clinton takes credit for the decline in the number of abortions? Hmph. Michael J. New, who writes for National Review Online, lays it out on abortion decline, citing research that both in the US and globally, abortion rates are mostly influenced by moderate legistative restrictions on abortion. He writes:

Articles that have appeared in peer reviewed academic journals provide further evidence that legally restricting abortion results in reductions in abortion rates and ratios. A 2004 study that appeared in The Journal of Law and Economics analyzed how changes in abortion policies in post-communist Eastern Europe affected the incidence of abortion. This study was particularly interesting because after the demise of communism, some Eastern European countries liberalized their abortion laws, while others enacted restrictions on abortion. At any rate, the authors concluded that modest restrictions on abortion reduced abortion rates by around 25 percent. [emphasis mine]

Furthermore, a study that was published in The New England Journal of Medicine in 2006 found that a Texas parental-involvement law led to statistically significant reductions in the number of abortions performed on minors (both in and out of state) and a slight, but statistically significant increase in the teen birthrate. Finally, my own Heritage Foundation research on state level pro-life legislation which utilizes data from both the Alan Guttmacher Institute and the Centers for Disease Control provides evidence that informed consent laws, public-funding restrictions, and parental-involvement laws are all correlated with reductions in the incidence of abortion.

Interestingly, even some studies that have appeared in the Alan Guttmacher Institute’s own Family Planning Perspectives provide evidence that pro-life legislation at the state level reduces the incidence of abortion. [emphasis mine]

So what has he done? Clinton's real 4-1-1 toward "safe, legal, and rare" abortions reads like a locomotive ramrodding abortion down America's throat. Observe...

In 1993:
-President Clinton issues five executive orders on the same day to make abortion more available:
1. Reversed Title 10 regulations banning abortion referral by federal employees
2. Repealed the Mexico City Policy restricting federal funds to international organizations that oppose abortion laws
3. Reversed ban on funding for transplants utilizing fetal tissue
4. Mandated military hospitals to perform abortions
5. Overturned a ban on the RU-486 pill and ordered the FDA to review ways to license and manufacture it for US distribution
-The infamous Clinton 1993 Health Care Plan - provided financial coverage for elective abortion (and also nonvoluntary euthanasia)
-Clinton signs a bill authorizing government funding for tissue research on aborted fetuses
-Nominates Ruth Bader Ginsburg to the US Supreme Court (Ginsburg is a former ACLU attorney and a strong supporter of abortion rights)
-Volunteers to give $75 million to International Planned Parenthood (of course, it's not his money he's volunteering)
-Mandates Medicaid funds to be available to cover abortions when abortionists report pregnancies resulting from rape or incest

In 1996 and 1997:
Clinton vetoes the Partial Birth Abortion Ban twice, falsely citing exemptions for the lives of women whose pregnancies are life-threatening

But wait, there's more:
-Although the drug does not meet its own standards, the FDA approves of RU-486 anyway for availability to the public.
-Clinton urges passage of the Freedom of Choice Act, which, if passed, would have nullified every state regulation of abortion
-Clinton attempts to repeal the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits federal funding of abortion except in rare cases
-Clinton orders family planning clinics receiving federal funds to refer women for abortion
-Clinton reinstates funding to the United Nations Population Fund, which helps manage China's forced abortion policies
(info credit: Jill Stanek's blog)

Egads, do I need to go on? Clinton must have an earthmover sized hole in his head if he thinks that greenlighting abortion as he did would result in a decline. Instead, new reports, like this one from National Right to Life, show repeatedly that the increase in informed consent laws, parental notification laws, and the efforts of pro-life organizations to educate young women on fetal development and abortion risks have had significant influence on pregnant women carrying their babies to term versus obtaining abortions. And it is no secret that Bill and Hillary have opposed such legislation and measures to educate young women at every turn. Given the facts, it is utterly clear that abortion decline has been occuring despite the efforts to promote it by both Clinton politicians.

And what about his dig at pro-life students about not really being pro-life on account of not wanting to prosecute abortion-seeking mothers as accessories to murder? Frank Beckwith dealt with this at length on his blog, pointing out that he did not address the pro-life students' questions, but rather questioned their integrity for asking. What a surprise. Do note that I reserve the right for my logical brain not to accept that kind of smack. Although, Clinton did give away a bit of the store in his little outburst by admitting that women are indeed "mothers" to their unborn children.

Brush off aside, Beckwith feels that the hecklers shouldn't have heckled. I say they darn right should have heckled! You don't get that true Kodak color out of Bill Clinton otherwise. It's priceless. Bet you're dying to see it:


(Credit: YouTube user mikejmon333)