Obama: " I believe in and trust women in general to make the best decision."

[carpe diem]

And despite the clear enthusiasm for Obama in the crowd gathered at the fieldhouse of Loras College, a Catholic university, they also asserted their right to a tough question or two.

"Millions of people have been killed because of the Roe v. Wade trial," said one college-aged questioner. "What is your view on that?"

A longtime law professor, Obama reframed the question – "You're asking about my view on abortion," he said – and then answered it.

"I think that it's a profound and difficult moral issue," he said. " I believe in and trust women in general to make the best decision."

The crowd cut him off. Roughly half the women and many of the men in the 2,300-member audience stood up and applauded loudly for half a minute. Obama decided to leave it at that.

By the end of the meeting, Obama felt compelled to acknowledge the Iowa voters as a tough crowd.

"I know you Iowans are hard to convince," he said. "You'll talk it over with your husband, your wife . . . 'I'm still waiting for Edwards to come by. He's kind of a good-looking guy, maybe we'll like him.' I know what you guys are thinking."

No hard feelings, he said before he delivered one parting shot.

"I want you to get involved," said Obama. "If you decide not to do it for me, do it for somebody. But don't sit this one out."

[rodeodance]

1. like the way he just wants all to be involved in the next election.

[silverweb]

2. Perfect responses.

GObama!

:loveya:

[TwilightGardener]

3. He knows how to

work a crowd without preaching or condescension. Love it!

[ShortnFiery]

5. Here! Here! He has a gift ... I love it!

:applause: Go Obama! :yourock:

[HockeyMom]

4. Can I slap these snot nosed kids?

Like that group of college kids, whatever their name is, who are calling their generation the "Holocaust" generation whose member have been aborted out of existence.

I of am your parents generation. I have 2 children by CHOICE. I did not want any more and made SURE I didn't by birth control and sterilization. You kids are in college BECAUSE your parents did not CHOOSE to have ENDLESS children that they could not AFFORD and provided you with a better life because of it. What do you not understand about this fact?

Incidentally, I, myself, am an ONLY CHILD by my parents' choice also. Yes, darling college kids, BIRTH CONTROL existed and WORKED even back then, if the couple really wanted it to. I have never had an abortion and neither did my Mom.

You want to have a quiver full of kids, be my guest. I sure hope your college degree makes you a "quiver full" of MONEY to support them.

[TwilightGardener]

6. The "Holocaust" generation? Are you kidding me?

[HockeyMom]

11. I wish I were

http://www.survivors.la/

Courtesy of the Freepers who thought this organization was the GREATEST.

[TwilightGardener]

15. Ugh--never knew they existed!

[CTyankee]

8. Good for you, HockeyMom!

You said it perfectly!

Most people are with you and me on this issue. The problem is that they don't want to rock the boat with people who are "in their face" with this antichoice crap. Well, I have no such scruples!

And yes, I never had an abortion and neither did my mother. However, if that occasion had occurred I would only hope that she would have survived, given the illegal status of abortion back then. And I know that my mother would have done ANYTHING for my brother and me so if that meant she would have had to have an abortion, she would have. She loved us more than anything and would not have wanted to desert us in our childhood!

[zulchzulu]

9. The brainwashed kid's "Millions of people have been killed..."

I got into an argument with a niece who goes to a Catholic school and has been to DC a couple of times for the so-called "Pro-Life" rallies. She is pretty brainwashed on the abortion issue, but otherwise an A student. It's tragic that the clergy at her school (along with mostly male ringleader teachers) indocrinate these kids with such binary ignorance on the issue.

I usually frame my argument with "so you want a bunch of men in government to control your body" to her retort that anyone who aborts a baby is a murderer. She's almost 16 and I'm sure she will have a friend who has to deal with an accidental pregnancy. It's unfortunate that this will be how she finally sees the reality of making a choice.

[HockeyMom]

14. She needs to THINK for herself

I did when I was 16 in Catholic School. I opened my eyes and looked around. I was living in a one bedroom apartment and sleeping with my Grandma in a sofa bed in the living room, even as an ONLY child. My parents and the parents of my schoolmates with only one or two kids had the same living arrangements. I also saw the SLUMS where there were six kids to a one or two bedroom apartment.

To my 16 year old brain the ONLY way to escape this was to have a good eduction, a good JOB, and fewer kids. If that meant birth control, and yes, even abortion, then that was what must be done.
You simply DO NOT have as many children as "God wants". God will provide? In looking all around me, I NEVER saw that.

Growing up in Manhattan, I saw the very rich and the very poor. The very rich did not have 10 kids. It was the very poor who had kid after kid after kid. Damn, MY parents and all of my schoolmates parents understood this. Yet, this generation of college kids can't?

These people want to create MORE poverty? Looks like they are already on the road to that. We certainly don't need to bring more children into it.

[SemperEadem]

27. I can remember being young--6th or 7th grade

(and I attended Catholic schools for 12 years) going on a field trip to see a presentation about abortion. I can remember watching the presentation, where they showed us dismembered bodies of aborted fetuses. While looking at these images, I had an epiphany about Catholicism: it was bullshit. That one act turned me off to anything else they had to say about anything regarding my life. It turned me into a pro-choice female that day because I could recognize with my 13 yr old mind that they were attempting to brainwash me and I wasn't falling for it.

The day I graduated from high school was the last time I willingly set foot in a Catholic church for 27 years.

[SemperEadem]

26. she needs to read up on the condition of women back before

women got the vote.

She needs to read up on Margaret Sanger and her important work. http://www.msu.edu/course/mc/112/1920s/Sanger/Information.html

Back then, before birth control was deemed acceptable (and fought against virgorously by the Catholic church) women had baby after baby til childbearing literally killed them--wore out their body.

There is a damn good reason, of which she has never had to experience the horrors, for why Roe v Wade even made it into being law of the land. Fantasy has its place and hers belongs no where near my or any other woman's uterus. And she should know that before RvW became law, women were getting abortions in back alleys where they would get butchered--because what she doesn't understand is that nothing is going to stop a woman who cannot bring an unplanned pregnancy to term, law or no law---and history has born that out. They died trying. Before the printing press was invented--back into antiquity, women got abortions. Her generation is by no stretch of the imagination a 'holocaust' generation.

She's an idealistic, starry-eyed young girl with a head full of Catholic fairy tales who has no experience of life which would cause her to need to safeguard controlling her reproductive health. We all say one thing when we're not gripped in the teeth of circumstances and allow ourselves to be taken by our fancies; it's when she's faced with an unplanned pregnancy and the shame and ridicule her judgments about women who 'do that sort of thing' come down on her that she'll realize how misguided her judgments are.

Regarding her judging women as murderers: "According to your God, if the woman asks forgiveness, it's forgiven, so what's up with you if God can forgive when asked? Are you saying you're better or wiser than God? Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before the fall, babygirl."

[pnwmom]

16. That whole group of college students doesn't deserve to be smeared

by you, because one student asked a question. The site you linked is for fundamentalist Christians, not Catholics. As the article noted, many of the students at the university gave Obama a standing ovation.

Also, in case you didn't realize, Catholics as a group are just as likely as non-Catholics to use contraceptives, despite the edicts from on high.

[Colobo]

7. Excellent response by Obama

[Tellurian]

10. Yep, " I believe in and trust women in general to make the best decision."

Well said, Obama!

And why, I'm glad Hillary is running!

[Colobo]

12. LOL!

[Tellurian]

13. LOL to U2!

:toast:

[IndianaGreen]

17. And why this woman is not voting for Hillary!

:-)

[Learn2Swim]

19. .

:toast:

Gobama!

[cyberpj]

18. Link to that? (So I can share with others...) nt

[Donald Ian Rankin]

20. My respect for Obama just dropped somewhat.

"I believe in and trust women in general to make the best decision."

That's a wonderful slogan, but it's clearly an example of telling the people what they want to hear, not of giving an honest, reasoned answer.

Many women have abortions they later regret, either as their own decision or due to pressure from others.

A great many women have children they would have been wiser to abort, either as their own decision or due to pressure from others.

The reason to support abortion is that no-one else has any right to make that decision for a woman, and other people are even more likely to make mistakes. Unless his usage of "in general" is very loose indeed, though, what he said is mistaken, I think.

[Ethelk2044]

21. He is Right

A woman has a right to say what happens to her body. He believes most women are intelligent enough to make the right choice for her own body. He is right because no one knows what is best for the woman except for herself.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

22. All of that is true, but that wasn't what he said at all.

NT

[ripple]

36. I think you might be misinterpreting what he meant

It looks like you take exception to his use of the phrase "in general".

I interpret what he said to mean not that women in general should exclusively make legislative decisions regarding abortion as it applies to all women, but that women in general are best suited to make such personal decisions about their own bodies.

His voting record supports the latter interpretation, as well.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

37. Neither of those is what he said.

What he said was *not* "a woman is better-qualified to make a decision about whether or not she should have an abortion than anyone else is" (which I think is just common sense), but "women will in general make the right decision about whether or not to have an abortion". That's a *much* stronger claim.

I think that very often women make the wrong decision; I just don't think anyone else has the right to make it for them, and anyone else would be wrong even more often.

[ripple]

39. He said best decision, not right decision

He said that he believes in and trusts women in general to make the "best" decision.

He isn't claiming it's always the right decision, only that he trusts women to make the decision that is best for them.

[DemKR]

23. It seems to me like he's ashamed to say he's pro-choice n/t

[SemperEadem]

28. I think he said it quite eloquently without falling into a bullshit trap

set by the person asking the question.

[ecstatic]

40. exactly. How could one argue with the words he said without looking like

a sexist asshole?

[Colobo]

30. Another cheap shot

[sutz12]

33. I'm not sure he is pro-choice....

One of the things that I don't like about Obama is that he appears to be one of those "Christians" that worry me so much when they get into public office.

However, this response tells me that he isn't necessarily interested in having his personal feelings on the matter become the law af the land. I like the way he framed the question, then gave an answer that was fairly well thought out. I respect him more for the way he answered this, although my concerns are not yet fully assuaged.

[skipos]

34. Naral gave him a 100% rating. Who knows better, them or you? nt

[sutz12]

35. Well, I wasn't aware of that....

but I think he is wise to parse his words on this matter a bit.

Thanks for the update/info, though.

[beaconess]

24. Oh, please n/t

[Donald Ian Rankin]

38. Please what?

NT

[bettyellen]

31. just as many women regret having the kid, believe you me....

wise up. look around. some people are going to blame their woes on the road not taken- whatever it was.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

32. That's what I said.

As I said, I suspect that more women regret not having abortions than regret doing so.

You appear to think you're disagreeing with me?

[bettyellen]

42. you said they had children they would have been wiser to abort....

an outsider's opinion (which you seem to believe a woman should sometimes defer to?) of what should have happened with the pregnancy- not necessarily her own regret. you see as a woman, we can't play fast and loose with that distinction. it's called self autonomy. so i don't think we are exactly on the same page. i have np reservations abput a woman's right to choose.
if a man feels compelled to breed he needs to find a person who is in accord with that intent.

[Clarkie1]

25. I would like to recommend this thread...but it's past 24 hours.

But I can still kick it!

:-)

[mtnsnake]

29. This guy just knows the right answers.

I can't wait to see him demolish whatever Repuke he has to face in the Presidential debates after he gets the Democratic nod.

[ecstatic]

41. "Millions of people have been killed"

Talk about distorting the issues!!

Nevertheless, I strongly believe in destiny. Nobody can interfere with it, one way or another. A life force can neither be created nor destroyed but it can change form. A baby that is meant to be born WILL be born-- from the right body at the right time.