Why would anyone want to run for President?

Barack Obama is under attack from my friends on the left yet again; this time it was because he said something about late term abortions:

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama says “mental distress” should not qualify as a justification for late-term abortions, a key distinction not embraced by many supporters of abortion rights.

In an interview this week with “Relevant,” a Christian magazine, Obama said prohibitions on late-term abortions must contain “a strict, well defined exception for the health of the mother.”

Obama then added: “Now, I don’t think that ‘mental distress’ qualifies as the health of the mother. I think it has to be a serious physical issue that arises in pregnancy, where there are real, significant problems to the mother carrying that child to term.”

Last year, after the Supreme Court upheld a federal ban on late-term abortions, Obama said he “strongly disagreed” with the ruling because it “dramatically departs form previous precedents safeguarding the health of pregnant women.”

The health care exception is crucial to abortion rights advocates and is considered a legal loophole by abortion opponents. By limiting the health exception to a “serious physical issue,” Obama set himself apart from other abortion rights proponents.

The official position of NARAL Pro-Choice America, the abortion rights group that endorsed Obama in May, states: “A health exception must also account for the mental health problems that may occur in pregnancy. Severe fetal anomalies, for example, can exact a tremendous emotional toll on a pregnant woman and her family.”

The 1973 landmark abortion case, Roe v. Wade, established a right to an abortion, and a concurrent case, Doe v. Bolton, established that medical judgments about the need for an abortion could include physical, emotional and psychological health factors.

“Senator Obama has consistently maintained that laws restricting abortions must contain exceptions for the health and life of the mother,” Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor said Thursday. “Obviously, as he stated in the interview, he has consistently believed those exceptions should be clear and limited enough to ensure that they don’t undermine the prohibition on late-term abortions.”

Obama’s position is similar to that taken by a bipartisan group of senators in 1998 who tried to counter efforts to ban certain late-term abortions with their own legislation. That proposal, which failed, would have banned all late-term abortions except for those that are necessary to protect the physical health of the mother.

In a statement, NARAL Pro-Choice said Obama’s magazine interview is consistent with Roe v. Wade.

Of course, some are unhappy about that.

For an example, go here.

Some are very unhappy:

That is, unless Obama believes that psychological health doesn’t “qualify” as an intrinsic part of every human’s health—a position so extraordinary I cannot believe he would hold it. (Would he also argue that psychological care should not be covered under his universal health insurance plan?)

And, if he doesn’t believe that, then he evidently believes acute psychological distress “qualifies” as a serious health issue for everyone except pregnant women.

Certainly his defenders will say he didn’t mean it that way, and of course he didn’t. What he meant is that he doesn’t think all those irresponsible, fickle, ninny-brained straw-women who decide willy-nilly they want abortions in their third trimester shouldn’t be allowed to get one by claiming “mental distress” swoon swan get thee to a fainting couch. He’s breathing life into the damnable lie that there are legions of women who seek out late-term abortions just because they’ve changed their silly little minds and make up lies about “mental distress” to get them.

Interestingly enough, I’ve talked to people who worked at abortion providing places and to those who have worked with women. Guess what? That’s right; there ARE women who use abortion for birth control purposes. I don’t know the percentages though I’ve heard it is a minority of abortion seekers.

Yes, I support abortion rights and yes, the benefit of the doubt should be given to the woman and her doctor. What I don’t approve of is pretending that a situation is different because reality isn’t what you want it to be.

For the record, here is what the AMA says about late term abortion.

And to refresh your memory, her is a summary of what Roe vs. Wade is about:

Since the landmark Roe v. Wade Supreme Court case in 1973, abortion has been legal in the United States. For the first trimester of pregnancy, government cannot interfere. But after the first trimester, states may limit a woman’s right to the procedure, and 41 states have laws in place regulating access to late-term abortions.

As far as reasons women give for abortion, raw results of a survey is given here.

Yeah, I know: “stay out of the kitchen if you can’t stand the heat.” But, well, if I were really rich, I’d be tempted to vote Republican just to watch the whiners suffer.

But I am not wealthy; 350 dollars a month in property tax for a modest house and 600 dollars for a routine physical exam are meaningful amounts for me; I wish I were financially successful enough to count that as “chump change”.

But I am not.