George, who serves on the President’s Council on Bioethics, launched moralaccountability.com to record the president’s platform as well as news on abortion, embryonic research and marriage.
“[With this website], everyone who offered an opinion on these issues, the effect of Obama’s policies and the sincerity of his claims, could be held accountable,” George said in an interview with The Daily Princetonian.
Some anti-abortion advocates felt comfortable supporting Obama during the 2008 election season despite his views on reproductive rights, George noted. These voters “[argued] that it is legitimate and desirable to support … Obama because despite his differences of opinion on this issue … his [policies] would actually reduce the death toll of abortion because they would strike at the root causes of abortion, specifically economic distress,” he explained.
The website seeks to present facts, George said, which will ultimately show whether his concerns about Obama are warranted. “If it turns out that [Obama’s] policies do reduce the rate of abortion, if he works to make sure that marriage is not redefined, then I can be proven wrong and held accountable,” George added.
Though George intends the website to be a factual resource, critics say it offers a biased portrayal of George’s own opinions.
“The website is just an advertisement of Robert George’s current absurdism,” said Chris Moses GS, a member of the Princeton Pro-Choice Vox. “The majority of Americans are in favor of people making independent, private choices about their healthcare.”
Some anti-abortion advocates said they believe the website will be a valuable resource.
“I think it’s already been pretty effective [at] keeping tabs on what Obama’s doing as far as [the] pro-life [movement] is concerned and [at] making sure all pro-lifers are aware of what’s going on,” said Robert Marsland ’11, a member of the Princeton Pro-Life Vox.
Moses disagreed with George’s premise that the site is needed to inform anti-abortion voters who supported Obama. “This whole idea of moral accountability is that the country is somehow headed toward condemnation,” Moses said. “There are medical professionals, scientists who are conducting stem-cell research, and there are ethical review boards, people who spend tremendous amounts of time figuring the implications of their actions.”
George said he is concerned that Obama has already acted in favor of the pro-abortion position, revoking the Mexico City Policy that prohibited all non-governmental organizations receiving government money from promoting or performing abortions internationally.
“That’s the first thing he did because he could do it by executive order,” George said. “So now American taxpayers’ money will flow into the coffers of abortion providers such as Planned Parenthood and other organizations that make abortions more widely available abroad.”
George said he does not believe his website will single-handedly impact national opinion, but he does think that “a certain number [of anti-abortion Obama supporters] will find their way to [the site] and be provided with information and arguments that will, I hope, enable people to judge more intelligently.”
Moses said he was unconvinced. “For someone who’s so smart, I don’t understand who he’s pandering to at the moment.”
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