About the victims, Mr. President

resident Obama was, as he usually is, movingly eloquent in his address to Notre Dame graduates last Sunday. He talked again about working together to reduce the incidence of abortion, and he raised new hopes by seeming to reverse himself on conscience protection, calling for “a sensible conscience clause” to safeguard the rights of health care workers. Time will tell whether actions will follow his promising words, or whether this item will disappear from his agenda as quickly as the words vanished from his teleprompter. But for now, we can take him at his word, and let him know that we expect him to follow through.

As the president called for respectful dialogue and a search for “common ground” on the issue of abortion, however, he conveniently omitted from the discussion the central figure in the debate: the unborn child, the first and directly intended victim of every abortion. Where in the past abortion supporters have sought to deny the living humanity of the unborn child, Mr. Obama — perhaps cognizant that medical science has now established beyond any doubt that the child in the womb is indeed a living, developing human being — simply chose to ignore that human being’s existence.

It is of a piece with his deceptive reference to “those who speak out against stem cell research,” when he surely knows — if he doesn’t, he has no business holding forth on the issue — that virtually no one opposes stem cell research. We all support the life-affirming research being done with adult stem cells, which continues to produce far more positive results in treating debilitating disease than does the embryo-destroying research that pro-life people DO oppose. Indeed, as Lifenews.com editor Steven Ertelt points out, even in the heart-wrenching example Obama invoked — juvenile diabetes — “just last month, new research using adult stem cells showed further insulin independence for Type 1 diabetes patients.” Yet Obama would prioritize the morally objectionable and medically less-promising approach of embryo-destructive research, thereby diverting scarce resources from the far more promising research with stem cells taken harmlessly from adults. And, while calling at Notre Dame for mutual respect, he flagrantly misrepresents the position of the Catholic Church and the pro-life movement on stem cell research.

By ignoring the existence of the child in the womb Mr. Obama makes impossible any respectful dialogue or search for common ground. It would be like trying to address poverty without reference to the needs of poor people, or establishing immigration policies without regard for their impact on immigrants. The actions of the 9-11 terrorists look far different morally if we simply ignore the thousands of human lives they destroyed. Where is the injustice of human slavery if we ignore the existence of the slaves? What of violent crime without reference to its victims? Or the death penalty without consideration of the person being executed? Can we discuss the morality of war without acknowledging that it destroys human lives?

In short, if you remove the unborn child from the discussion of abortion, the pro-life position seems an unreasonable intrusion on personal choice. However if you place the life and the rights of the child where they belong, at the very center of the debate, then no position other than the pro-life position is rational — or morally defensible.

There can be no “common ground” on this issue until Mr. Obama and all supporters of abortion openly acknowledge that the child in the womb exists; that he or she is a living human being; and that their lives too are worthy of the human respect about which the president lectures so eloquently.

Few among the cheering students, faculty and administrators at the Notre Dame commencement seemed inclined to speak this inconvenient truth to presidential power. But it is a truth Mr. Obama needs to hear.

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