President Obama made much of the Executive Order he signed last March. It was supposed to stop federal funding of abortion. It was given as a fig leaf to formerly pro-life Democrats who had voted for ObamaCare and enabled it to pass, narrowly, in the House of Representatives.
Most pro-life Americans knew the Obama order was a charade. We have had this administration pushing vigorously for abortion-on-demand from the first day they took office. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had hardly taken her oath of office before she told a House Foreign Affairs committee hearing early in 2009 that “sexual and reproductive rights and health” were a major goal of the Obama administration. She assured House members she would do all in her power to help overturn foreign countries’ pro-life laws. The Obama administration may not want to protect democracy demonstrators in the streets of Tehran. That would be, they say, “meddling.” But they are more than willing to trample the sovereignty of other nations to advance the Planned Parenthood agenda.
Take Kenya, for example. Kenya suffered terrorist attacks back in 1998 because of their close ties to the U.S. You would think that this East African ally would get a special measure of respect, especially because Barack Obama’s late father, and many of his relatives, hail from Kenya. Think again.
President Obama dispatched his veep, Joe Biden, to Kenya last month. Vice President Biden went there specifically to lobby for a new constitution for Kenya. Art. 26 of that new constitution would repeal the country’s long-standing pro-life law on abortion. He spurned the efforts of American-based pro-life groups who are working to prevent this Roe v. Wade of Kenya. Their selfless activities, he said, are “one of the drawbacks of democracy.”
So, having groups use their free speech rights to dissent and to appeal to fellow Christians is a “drawback of democracy?” James Madison, call your office. To make matters worse, Joe Biden told Kenyans that by passing the pro-abortion constitution, they would “allow money to flow” to Kenya from other countries.
No, Joe, responsible dissent is one of the strengths of democracy; bribery is one of its drawbacks.
Congressman Chris Smith (R-N.J.) is protesting this intervention—this pro-abortion meddling—by Joe Biden in the affairs of a self-governing African nation. He notes that Biden’s heavy-handed intervention may well be against federal law. Since 2006, the law has said “no foreign assistance funds may be used to lobby for or against abortion.” This sounds like another case of Joe Biden over the line.
Joe Biden’s long-term abortion advocacy is well-known. Years ago, he was hailed at an Amtrak train station by then-Sen. Warren Rudman (R-N.H.) The pro-abortion Rudman and Biden ran to meet one another. They embraced on the train platform, laughing and almost weeping for joy. Two middle-aged men jumping up and down like schoolboys on a vacation; that must have been quite a sight.
This scene was all because Rudman’s secret assurances to Biden, then the Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, about Justice David Souter had proven correct: Souter would be a solid vote for abortion-on-demand. When Souter began twenty years of liberal judicial activism on the Supreme Court, Biden and Rudman were relieved and rejoiced.
Grove City College’s Paul Kengor, a careful researcher, documented all of this from the memoirs of Warren Rudman. (You know Professor Kengor is a great scholar. Who else would read Warren Rudman’s memoirs?)
Souter recently left the Court. He left town without renown. What fate awaits Joe Biden?
That’s not nearly as important as the fate of millions of Kenyans yet unborn.
Ken Blackwell is a senior fellow at the Family Research Council and a visiting professor at the Liberty University School of Law.
