Obama: The First 50 Days

Father Alphonse de Valk of Catholic Insight Magazine has documented the policies and appointments that constitute the most demonic and ambitious assault on human life and the family ever waged in the United States. That assault, by Obama and his appointees, is gaining momentum. With permission, we are pleased to reprint Father de Valk's documentation of the first fifty days of Obama's campaign for a culture of death.

From Catholic Insight
By Father Alphonse de Valk

Obama has appointed one vice-president, 13 secretaries, four directors, five legal counsels and 13 White House staff for a total of 36 people. Of these, 23 are known to be pro-abortion. Of the remaining 13, only one is known to be pro-life (the secretary of transportation); the views of the others are unknown to us. Of the White House staff, none are known to be pro-life.

In addition, the vice-president, five secretaries and one director (that of the CIA) are Catholics. All of them, however, disown the Church’s teaching on the dignity and protection of all human life, from conception to natural death.

We would appreciate receiving notices of any documentable errors and omissions in this tabulation, so that it may be corrected as need be.

The anti-life assault begins

The election of Barack Obama as president, Catholic Insight stated in a November 3, 2008 press release, would turn out to be a disaster for the advance of a pro-life culture.

On the most important cultural issue of all, the equality and dignity of all human beings before God, he represents the greatest threat today, even more so than the notorious Marxist revolution of 1917 with its attack on the family. That revolution was rejected by the Western world. On the other hand, Obama's leadership is being hailed as a sign of hope across the world and welcomed with open arms. Obama has a 100 per cent approval rating from NARAL Pro-Choice America, the U.S.’s leading pro-abortion organization. That rating is based on a record of consistently voting against the unborn.

Obama has told Planned Parenthood he regards so-called choice as “a fundamental issue” on which he will not yield. He voted against an Induced Infant Liability Act in the Illinois legislature in 2002; this would have given legal protection and medical assistance to babies born from botched abortions. He also voted against banning partial-birth abortion in the Senate in October 2007.

On another key issue, the integrity of the traditional family, in 2004 Obama called the Defence of Marriage Act an “abhorrent law” and added: “The repeal of DOMA is essential ... For the record, I opposed DOMA in 1996. It should be repealed and I will vote for its repeal on the Senate floor. I will also oppose any proposal to amend the U.S. Constitution to ban gays and lesbians from ‘marrying.’”

“We must be careful to keep our eyes on the prize – equal rights for every American,” he has told homosexual activists. “We must continue to fight for the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA). We must vigorously expand hate-crime legislation and be vigilant about how these laws are enforced. We must continue to expand adoption rights to make them consistent and seamless throughout all 50 states and we must repeal the ‘don't ask, don't tell’ military policy.”

Apart from issues of human life and the family, there are numerous other question marks surrounding Obama, many of which are covered by Dr. Jerome Corsi in his New York Times bestselling book, The Obama Nation: Leftist Politics and the Cult of Personality (see the review on page 32 of the April 2009 edition of Catholic Insight).

Inauguration

January 20, 2009: Barack Obama is sworn in as president of the United States of America. His original birth certificate is not available. He calls himself a “person of faith,” without specifying what faith he means. It is not Christianity as founded by Jesus and entrusted to his Apostles.

In his inaugural address, Obama neglects to mention the American founders’ emphasis on life and liberty as the first of the inalienable rights in the Declaration of Independence. Five minutes after Obama becomes president, the White House website changes from pro-life to pro-abortion.

Policies

January 21: The president is at work selecting members of his staff and cabinet while Congress, where Democrats have a majority in both the Senate and the House of Representatives, sets to work developing policies and legislation to advance the agnostic-atheist attack on the Judeo-Christian foundations of law and order.

In Congress, Obama receives assistance from numerous Catholic politicians who have scuttled Catholic moral teaching in favour of “political correctness,” i.e., various aspects of modern hedonism and the culture of death. While the overriding focus of attention during the first 50 days is the economy, the bailout of banks, various “stimulus” packages and the housing credit and unemployment crises, the anti-life agenda was set in motion from the beginning.

January 21-22: Obama signs executive orders calling for the closure of Guantanamo Bay (January 22), a ban on torture (January 22) and new rules regarding transparency and lobbyists (January 21). This is what draws the attention of the world.

January 21: Meanwhile, the White House website is updated — under the title “Civil Rights,” for the LGBT activists, it reads:

• SSM (same-sex “marriage”)
• Repeal the Defence of Marriage Act (DOMA)
• Repeal the army’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy
• Pass “hate crime” legislation granting “transgendered” homosexual activists and crossdressers equal rights
• Pass the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA)
• Promote “gay adoption” (i.e., motherless or fatherless homes for children)

January 22: Buried in the House Stimulus Bill, in Section 5004, is the “State Eligibility Option for Family Planning.” This would make national Medicaid a money machine to the tune of $87 billion for family planning clinics in the United States. (Family planning in the U.S., as well as in Canada and elsewhere, means: “Planning not to have families,” i.e., promote contraception, sterilization and abortion.) The U.S. already spends more than $400 million on overseas “family planning” assistance each year.

• The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approves a guide for the use of embryonic stem cells for human trial. (To this point in time, embryonic stem cell research has never cured or helped any patient; on the other hand, the use of adult stem cells already has some 80 medical achievements on its roster.)

• Two hundred thousand people walk in the March for Life in Washington, marking the 36th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision establishing abortion throughout the U.S.

• Obama issues a written statement that he backs a woman’s “right to choose.”

January 23: Obama overturns, by executive order, the Mexico City Policy of previous presidents that forbade the funding of abortions and abortion groups outside U.S. boundaries. (No TV cameras or press were present for the signing on a late Friday afternoon when news services were shut down. Hundreds of millions of dollars will go to support abortions in poor countries, especially in Asia, Africa and South America.)

• Appended to the statement announcing the end of the Mexico City Policy, Obama declared: “In addition, I look forward to working with Congress to restore U.S. financial support for the UN Population Fund.” (That funding was halted in 2002 when a State Department investigation showed the Fund supported China’s coercive one-child-per- family policy through forced abortions and sterilizations.)

January 25: House of Representatives majority leader Nancy Pelosi (a pro-abortion, pro-same-sex “marriage” Catholic) declares that contraception is now part of the U.S. economy.

January 26: Obama calls upon Democratic leaders to remove the “family planning” provisions supported by Pelosi from the $825-billion stimulus bill, after Americans and media outlets, such as the Drudge Report, ridicule the items as non-starters in stimulating the economy and creating more jobs. Senate Republicans threaten a filibuster.

January 27: A Congressional committee debates the Prevention First Act (PFA), which, if passed, would hand over millions for “family planning” methods, attack freedom of conscience rights for health providers and financially pave the way for the proposed Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA), which would strip all states of the ability to restrict abortions and homosexual activism. The Prevention First Act was introduced by Senate majority leader Harry Reid (a pro-abortion Mormon) on January 6, 2009. The act claims to reduce unintended pregnancies and abortion and is based on the premise that contraception prevents abortion. (In reality, contraception is the gateway to abortion.)

• Susan Rice, Obama’s new ambassador to the UN, pledges support for the convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). Already, the CEDAW committee has tried to bully 93 countries into making abortion legal.

• The administrator of the USAID foreign assistance program, pro-lifer Kent Hill, is replaced with Alonzo Fulgham, the CEO of the agency, who announces that the reversal of the Mexico City Policy is being implemented immediately. Fulgham issues a formal notice informing field offices worldwide.

• The director of the UN Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA), pro-abortion Thoraya Obaid (Saudi Arabia), welcomes Obama’s restoration of $50 million to the UNFPA’s coffers and its coercive population control plans. “Access to reproductive health (a code word for contraception, sterilization and abortion) is the core of equality for women and girls,” she says. The funding had been suspended since 2002.

January 28: Obama tells Democrats to remove a bailout for the Planned Parenthood abortion business ($200 million for 295 abortuaries and 850 consultation centres) from the economic stimulus bill after vigorous pro-life protests, for fear that it might jeopardize the bill’s passage. It is dropped on January 30.

• The Senate defeats an amendment to restore the Mexico City Policy, 60-37. (Eighteen of 24 Catholic Senators voted to defeat it.)

• Pro-life groups continue their massive protests and opposition to the FOCA bill, which has been filed with Congress. The act would outlaw every abortion restriction passed by Congress, state legislatures or local communities. Obama has repeatedly expressed his support for FOCA, the last time on January 22, 2008, the 35th anniversary of Roe v. Wade. FOCA’s sponsor is Senator Barbara Boxer (a pro-abortion Jew).

January 29: The UN children’s agency UNICEF launches its annual report, stating: “Having a child remains one of the biggest health risks for women worldwide.” It recommends global financing for “family planning” and “reproductive health services” as the primary way to reduce maternal deaths. It then admits that the statistics on worldwide annual deaths are subject “to a high degree of uncertainty.”

• The Senate, by a 59-39 vote, rejects national medical coverage in the SCHIP program for unborn children and their pregnant mothers. This, pro-life sources say, will lead to more abortions, supposedly against the president’s intention of reducing abortions.

February 5: Obama’s new group of 24 faith-based advisors includes Rabbi David Saperstein, director of the Washington-based Religious Action Centre of Reform Judaism, which was a sponsor of a 2004 pro-abortion march by Planned Parenthood and NARAL. Other pro-abortion members are added later.

February 6: The Senate refuses to remove a discrimination clause against the religious use of university facilities benefiting from the stimulus bill.

February 19: The federal government is drafting guidelines that will be put in place once Obama approves federal funds for embryonic stem cell research.

February 25: As feared by pro-life groups, the Omnibus Appropriations Bill cuts funding for abstinence education by $54 million, while giving more money to Planned Parenthood programs. This leaves only $95 million for national programs. This money disappears later on.

• Time magazine, in attacking opponents of the FOCA bill, is accused of many inaccuracies, non-sequiturs and misrepresentations. Time has described the bill as “mythical.” Yet, Obama announced his intentions to sign such a bill in 2006, again in a July 2007 speech to Planned Parenthood and once more on January 22, 2008 on the Roe v. Wade anniversary.

February 27: • The Obama administration prepares to rescind conscience rules for health care workers. Obama officials tell the Chicago Tribune that, for the Provider Conscience Law and other regulations protecting medical personnel against involvement in abortions, they are opening a 30-day public comment period, after which they will rescind the law. Pro-abortion groups have long desired to coerce all medical personnel and hospitals into providing contraception and sterilizations and committing abortions. As one writer put it, “This is a declaration of war on all who oppose the killing of the unborn.”

March 5: The Senate, by a 55-39 vote, rejects an amendment to stop funds from going to the United Nations Population Fund.

March 6: Obama shuts out pro-life groups from attending today’s White House health care summit, called to discuss how health care reform should be implemented. Pro-abortion groups like Planned Parenthood, however, are invited to attend.

March 9: Obama eliminates eight-year-old limits on federal money for the use of embryonic stem cells for research — which kills newly conceived embryos — by presidential decree, in a room packed with scientists.

• The health secretary announces the intention to abolish the “final rule” (protection of conscience for health workers opposed to abortion, contraception, IVF, etc).

March 10: The end of the first 50 days. Except for publicity about the new financing of stem cell research and a mention of the overturning of the Mexico City Policy, adoring liberal daily newspapers have not mentioned Obama’s new Death Culture.

March 12: The Senate stimulus bill contains a bailout package for Planned Parenthood.

• The Senate rejects by a 55-39 vote an amendment to stop U.S. taxpayer funding of the UNFPA. The UNFPA backs policies of forced abortion and sterilizations, as in China.

Appointments

During the first 50 days, Obama selected the most anti-life, anti-family radicals he could find for his administration.

• Vice-President Joseph Biden (senator, Catholic, pro-abortion, pro-same-sex “marriage”)
• Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (Methodist, feminist, extremely pro-abortion). Clinton controls the American UN delegation
• Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano (former governor of Arizona, Catholic, strongly pro-abortion and pro-SSM)
• Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar (senator from Colorado, Catholic, pro-abortion)
• Secretary of Defence Robert Gates, a holdover from the Bush administration
• Secretary of Veterans Affairs Ken Shinseki (retired four-star general, Medical Corps; disagreed with former secretary of defence Donald Rumsfeld)
• National Security advisor Retired Marine General James Jones
• Labour Secretary Thida (Hilda) Solis (California congresswoman, Catholic, pro-abortion)
• Transportation Secretary Ray Lahood (Rep Congressman, pro-life)
• Secretary of Education Arne Duncan (favours separate schools for homosexuals)
• Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner (president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, a Bill Clinton holdover)
• Secretary of Energy Steven Chu (1997 Nobel prize in physics)
• Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Shaun Donovan (New York Housing
Commissioner)
• Central Intelligence Agency director Leon Panetta (former congressman; Bill Clinton’s chief of staff, a pro-abortion Catholic)
• Food and Drug Administration director Margaret Hamburger (New York City health commissioner under Mayor Rudy Giuliani, pro-abortion). An earlier appointment was listed as Jane Henney (headed the FDA under Clinton; professor at the University of Cincinnati, approved abortion drug RU 486 (mifepristone))
• Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack (governor of Iowa, 1999-2007; Catholic, pro-abortion)

Legal Counsel

• Attorney-General Eric Holder. The first African-American to hold this office (was deputy attorney-general under Janet Reno during the Clinton years)
• Deputy Attorney-General David Ogden (denies negative effects of abortion; considers pregnancy a form of slavery; was a lawyer for Playboy and other pornographic interests)
• Office of Legal Counsel, White House (assists attorney-general in her role as legal adviser to the president). Dawn Johnsen (pro-abortion, lawyer and legal director for NARAL Pro-Choice America, 1988-1933, professor at Indiana University School of Law)
• Assistant Deputy Attorney-General Thomas Perrelli (lawyer, pro-euthanasia, represented Terry Schiavo’s husband in his successful quest to have his wife starved and dehydrated to death)
• Solicitor-General Elena Kagan (strong abortion supporter. The solicitor-general represents the government before the Supreme Court)

Health

• Health Secretary and Health Services (HHS) Kathleen Sebelius (former governor of Kansas, Catholic, pro-abortion, including support for late term abortions (Ontario and Quebec send late-term abortions to Kansas, paying an average of $5,000 (US) for each.) HHS would play a role in getting abortion coverage in the new health program and make it mandatory that hospitals or insurance companies cover abortion.)
• Health Care Office, White House. Nancy-Ann De Parle, political advisor (pro-abortion)
• Deputy health care director Jeanne Lambow (pro-abortion)

Other Clinton Holdovers and Washington Lobbyists for White House Appointments (Do Not Require Congressional Approval)

• Chief of Staff, White House. Rahm Emanuel (congressman from Illinois, Jewish, pro-abortion — has a 100 per cent NARAL “pro-choice” rating; pro-SSM)
• White House political advisor David Axelrod (Jewish, pro-abortion). Axelrod was Obama’s main election strategist during the two-year-long campaign for office
• Director of communications Ellen Moran (former CEO of Emily’s List, a major and wealthy pro-abortion political action committee)
• Director of domestic policy Melody Barnes (former board member of Emily’s List and Planned Parenthood staff member)
• Director for foreign women’s issues (a new office to re-affirm the population and development goals of the Beijing 1995 UN conference; i.e., to promote abortions and overturn pro-life laws in foreign countries) Melanne Verveer (former chief of staff to Hillary Clinton; a pro-abortion Catholic). Holds rank of ambassador-at-large
• White House Council on Women and Girls (new office) director Tina Tchen (Chicago Lawyer, vice-president of NOW, feminist, pro-abortion. She has a mandate to examine all federal laws and agencies pertaining to women)

• Council on Environment Quality Nancy Sutley (lesbian).
• Director of the Environmental Protection Agency Lisa Jackson
• Climate “czarina,” White House Carol Browner
• Director for the Office of Management and Budget Peter Orszag (former economic advisor to Clinton)
• Head of the National Economic Council, White House. Lawrence Summers (former Clinton advisor)
• Chairman of the Democratic party Tim Kayne (governor of Virginia, Catholic, pro-abortion)

Summary

The facts of the first 50 days of the Obama presidency seem overwhelming. According to the 55-page pro-abortion document, “Advancing Reproductive Rights and Health in a New Administration,” $4.5 billion in federal funding will be disbursed at home and abroad to “advance reproductive rights.” This document is posted on www.change.org, Obama’s official website for his transition team.

Obama’s Steps for the First 100 Days projects the end of the Mexico City Policy, the Hyde Amendment, the Kemp-Kasten amendment, the Weldon Amendment, restrictions on emergency contraception (Plan B), the termination of all abstinence-only programs and a reversal of the recent HHS regulation protecting pro-life physicians and institutions. By Day 50, many of these had been accomplished already. Any present obstacles to so-called abortion rights not covered by removing these restrictions, such as the ban on partial birth abortion and state laws requiring parental notification, will be covered by the passage of the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA).

We draw the attention of our readers especially to the coercion which is built into many of these measures. A combined United States-United Nations assault on the freedom of poor countries to determine their own domestic policies on population will soon be underway.

At home, the Obama regime will take on more abusive, tyrannical features as it seeks to destroy the rights of people to disagree and dissent. All along, this has been the implication of the new legislated rights to kill and to overthrow the natural moral law in family and sexual matters introduced 40 years ago.

The president and his advisors will be making some 7,000 appointments that will influence policy; they will be pro-abortion ones, said one commentator, with the exception being the ambassador to the Vatican. What resistance the Christian community will be able to offer remains to be discussed in a future article.

That time now is not to surrender, but to fight back with all our might. The grace of Christ is stronger than the power of evil.


Sources: Americans for Truth; the American Life League; the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute; the Culture of Life Foundation; LifeNews.com; LifeSiteNews.com; the National Post; the Population Research Institute; Time; United Families.org; The Wanderer;WorldNetDaily.com, Zenit.org.