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Obama Administration Engages Planned Parenthood
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| Barack Obama departs the stage after speaking at last year's Planned Parenthood convention. |
White House Addresses Abortion Provider’s National Conference
BY JOE MURRAY, THE BULLETIN
When Barack Obama renamed Richard Nixon’s Office of Public Liaison to the Office of Public Engagement, he declared, “This office will seek to engage as many Americans as possible in the difficult work of changing this country.”
But as the OPE has developed over the last few months, the political winds have blown the office left of center and the OPE has been busy engaging left-wing interests.
That trend was recently reinforced when it was announced the OPE’s director, Christina M. Tchen, spoke at Planned Parenthood’s National Convention alongside the abortion provider’s president, Cecil Richards.
The PP Convention is a yearly event in which members of the pro-abortion organization meet to celebrate the abortion movement and discuss ways to challenge the nation’s pro-life laws. In 2007, Mr. Obama addressed the convention and pledged to appoint federal judges who would protect the judicially created right to abortion.
Ms. Tchen’s appearance at the conference signals the Obama administration will remain a friend of abortion rights organizations like Planned Parenthood. It also shows that the Obama outreach program is geared towards left-wing allies who helped elect the president.
In an NPR interview in June, Ms. Tchen described her office as one defined by “outreach.” She explained the purpose of the OPE was to break the Beltway monopoly special interest groups have onthe White House and take the dialogue to Main Street America.
But politics has crept into the OPE and Ms. Tchen, who also heads the Obama created Council on Women and Girls, has made statements defending gender-based politics.
In explaining the Council on Women and Girls, Ms. Tchen said she “went to each of the federal agencies and asked what they are doing for women and girls,” adding, “the issues confronting women and girls belong to all agencies.” And abortion is a key issue among left-leaning females.
Though Mr. Obama pledged to find common ground on the issue of abortion, his adopted policy positions on the controversial subject has moved him outside the mainstream. He repealed the Mexico City policy barring taxpayer funded overseas abortions, lifted the federal ban on stem cell research, is advocating for taxpayer funded abortions in Washington, D.C., and nominated a pro-choice justice to the U.S. Supreme Court.
During her confirmation hearing Tuesday, U.S. Supreme Court Nominee Sonia Sotomayor told the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee the concept of abortion rights rests upon “settled law.”
"There is a right of privacy. The court has found it in various places in the Constitution,” Ms. Sotomayor said, adding, “all precedents of the Supreme Court I consider settled law.”
But as the OPE has developed over the last few months, the political winds have blown the office left of center and the OPE has been busy engaging left-wing interests.
That trend was recently reinforced when it was announced the OPE’s director, Christina M. Tchen, spoke at Planned Parenthood’s National Convention alongside the abortion provider’s president, Cecil Richards.
The PP Convention is a yearly event in which members of the pro-abortion organization meet to celebrate the abortion movement and discuss ways to challenge the nation’s pro-life laws. In 2007, Mr. Obama addressed the convention and pledged to appoint federal judges who would protect the judicially created right to abortion.
Ms. Tchen’s appearance at the conference signals the Obama administration will remain a friend of abortion rights organizations like Planned Parenthood. It also shows that the Obama outreach program is geared towards left-wing allies who helped elect the president.
In an NPR interview in June, Ms. Tchen described her office as one defined by “outreach.” She explained the purpose of the OPE was to break the Beltway monopoly special interest groups have onthe White House and take the dialogue to Main Street America.
But politics has crept into the OPE and Ms. Tchen, who also heads the Obama created Council on Women and Girls, has made statements defending gender-based politics.
In explaining the Council on Women and Girls, Ms. Tchen said she “went to each of the federal agencies and asked what they are doing for women and girls,” adding, “the issues confronting women and girls belong to all agencies.” And abortion is a key issue among left-leaning females.
Though Mr. Obama pledged to find common ground on the issue of abortion, his adopted policy positions on the controversial subject has moved him outside the mainstream. He repealed the Mexico City policy barring taxpayer funded overseas abortions, lifted the federal ban on stem cell research, is advocating for taxpayer funded abortions in Washington, D.C., and nominated a pro-choice justice to the U.S. Supreme Court.
During her confirmation hearing Tuesday, U.S. Supreme Court Nominee Sonia Sotomayor told the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee the concept of abortion rights rests upon “settled law.”
"There is a right of privacy. The court has found it in various places in the Constitution,” Ms. Sotomayor said, adding, “all precedents of the Supreme Court I consider settled law.”
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