What's the other hand doing?

Pro-lifers everywhere are scurrying to sign petitions and mail postcards to their legislators, urging them not to sign the radical Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA).

Opposing FOCA is certainly laudable, but I've been concerned that it is drawing too much of our focus away from other aspects of the life issue.

I wonder if President Obama is not using the classic trick known to magicians everywhere - divert their attention with one hand, so no one notices what the other hand is doing.

I'm not the only one who feels this way. A number of pro-life blogs have already written about the “FOCA trap.” Everyone knows that FOCA is extreme. It was attempted during the Clinton administration and was successfully killed, thanks in part to the lobbying and grassroots efforts of the National Right to Life Committee and its affiliates and chapters.

I just can't see Congress — even the very liberal Congress now in session — simply passing this bill and sending it to the President to sign. They know it's wildly unpopular. And although the president promised (at a Planned Parenthood fund-raising event more than a year ago) that he would make it his first priority, he is not stupid.

Personally, I don't think FOCA has much chance of being passed or signed into law. It is so radical that even many pro-abortion legislators won't want to be associated with it.

So, why are we worrying so much about it? And what is the president and the pro-abortion lobby
doing while we are running around collecting petition signatures that Congress can care less about?

Just this: picking apart the incremental progress the pro-life movement has
made over the past three decades — quietly and without fanfare.

Already he has restored funding for abortions overseas. What's next?

How about the reversal of the Hyde Amendment, which limits federal funding of abortion. And providing federal funds for embryonic stem cell research — unnecessary and unproven medical experiments involve killing very young babies for their cells? And giving even more dollars to Planned Parenthood — in the name of ‘economic stimulus.’

These issues are harder to fight than FOCA. They are more difficult to explain and they lack a short, catchy nickname. But the danger is very real.

I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if, one day — after quietly carrying out most of his radical abortion agenda — the president will come out against FOCA, saying it’s too extreme. Suddenly, he’ll be a hero and a moderate — and meanwhile, we will have lost everything we’ve worked so hard for and millions more babies will be killed.

We need to stay focused on our game plan — to fight to protect human life at every stage in Congress and the state legislatures. We need to educate the next generation — that is where real change is happening! And we need to keep a close eye on what the president and Congress are doing and be ready to fight the incremental battles that don’t make the headlines.

Let’s keep an eye on what the other hand is doing.