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SPECIAL: Interview with AUL Action's Charmaine Yoest on 'Open Letter to Barack Obama' By Deacon Keith Fournier
10/31/2008 Catholic Online (www.catholic.org) Catholic Online's special interview with Charmaine Yoest, PhD,President & CEO of AUL Action on their "Open letter to Barack Obama."
WASHINGTON, DC (Catholic Online) - I recently had the opportunity to interview Charmaine Yoest, Ph.D., a long time leader in Pro-life and pro-family efforts who is now the President & CEO of AUL Action, the legislative arm of Americans United for Life (AUL). I last spoke with Charmaine when she worked with another Pro-Life leader, former Presidential candidate, Governor Mike Huckabee. I set forth the interview for all of Catholic Online's readers:
QUESTION: Charmaine, it is great to speak with you again. I have long admired your tireless work on behalf of what I like to call our "first neighbors", children in the first home of the whole human race, their mothers womb. Congratulations on your new position. Please explain AUL Action, its goals and your role for the global readers of Catholic Online
ANSWER:Americans United for Life Action (AULAction) is the legislative arm of Americans United for Life. We are a public interest, non profit law firm and policy organization devoted to defending life in law. We've been involved in every life-related case that has come before the Supreme Court since Roe and our ultimate objective is to see that decision reversed. I joined the organization as President and CEO in August because I believe we are at a historic moment in the life movement with both remarkable opportunities and pressing challenges in front of us. We are seeing a generation of young people who self-identify as pro-life at higher rates than their parents, yet at the same time Planned Parenthood's annual budget (largely subsidized by our tax dollars) just passed the $1 billion mark this year. And we have a Supreme Court where six of the justices are over 69 years old. So in just a few short years, we will see the composition of the Court dramatically change.
As the legal arm of the pro-life movement, I believe AUL is uniquely situated to make a difference in this environment. Our objective is to produce Constitutionally sound model legislation that pro-life legislators across the country can feel confident promoting. . . and none of our legislation has been struck at the state level. It has been a real honor for me to join this great team that has that kind of track record, and such a deep commitment to building a Culture of Life where everyone is welcomed in life and defended in law.
QUESTION: Charmaine, AUL Action has just released and published a very well done "Open Letter" to the Democratic Presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama. Please tell our readers what the letter is hoping to accomplish, where it was published and how they can participate in educating all voters to this critical issue.
ANSWER:We've faced a real challenge during this presidential election. AUL has always been committed to being nonpartisan and we work very closely with pro-life legislators in both political parties. We have a close working relationship with Democrats for Life and ultimately want to see both parties working to defend life. But the reality we are confronted with is that Senator Barack Obama has a radical record on the life issue. There is, of course, his refusal to vote in support of protection for babies born alive during an abortion which has been so well-documented by Gianna Jessen and at bornalivetruth.org.
Less well-known is his commitment to supporting the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA)-- a really radical piece of abortion legislation that would wipe out every piece of pro-life abortion-limiting legislation that Americans have passed over the last thirty years -- including common sense legislation that has very high levels of public suport like bans on partial-birth abortion and laws requiring parental involvement.
Last summer, Senator Obama spoke at a Planned Parenthood event and promised them that FOCA would be the FIRST piece of legislation he would sign as President. Pro-life voters need to know this before they make a decision about their vote on Tuesday. So we established a one-stop website that has all the FOCA information, including the video of Obama's promise to Planned Parenthood and a Consititutional analysis of the bill from our Vice President of Legal Affairs.
That website is at www.FightFOCA.com. We also have a petition against FOCA there that we would love to have your readers sign and also tell their friends about.
The Open Letter to Barack Obama that we released this week (which is posted at the FightFOCA.com site) is intended to underscore the importance of parental involvement laws for abortion. The letter tells the story of a 14-year-old girl who was impregnated by her 22-year-old soccer coach. He took her to Planned Parenthood. They turned a blind eye when he claimed to be a family member, and gave her an abortion, a Depo-Provera shot and a bag of condoms. Her parents eventually found out and the soccer coach was convicted of ...
Comments
Mr. Burke,
I can only imagine your opinion if you were alive during the Civil War: "We can't support that pro war Abraham Lincoln. Slavery should be a choice or those poor southerners will have to go somewhere else where slavery is legal in order to make ends meet." By proclaiming yourself as a "Catholic with a brain" due to your pro-death attitude, you are arrogantly putting yourself above the genius level IQ of our own Pope! Although I can see that you are very impressed with yourself, I doubt you can come close to matching the intellectual stamina of the greatest theologian alive! If you aren't going to behave like a true Catholic, move on! We'll welcome you back once you get your heart straightened out; but in the mean time, don't dare take communion with your arrogant disrespect for life.
Jason Miller | 11/1/2008
Mr. Burke,
I pray that you can open your eyes, ears and heart to the Lord and realize that we need to protect all life, starting with our neighbors in the womb. Your repeated posts clearly show that you are more of a PRO-OBAMA Catholic than you are a PRO-LIFE Catholic. I pray that the two types of Catholics could be the same, but sadly it cannot.
Ryan
Ryan Badgero | 10/31/2008
Mr. Burke: While the story of the soccer coach and the 14 year old is sad, and reprehensible it simply isn't anything like a cluster bomb dropped on Iraqi or Afghan Civilians.
Are you remarking here that only war is evil? Just make war go away and the world will no longer fall into concupiscence? War is hell, but so is abortion. When the war ends, will you pick up the gauntlet to fight the torture and killing in the womb?
elm | 10/31/2008
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