President Barack Obama has largely sidestepped social controversies such as abortion and gay rights. That’s about to change.
The fight will heat up Sunday when Obama delivers the commencement address at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Ind. His appearance at the Catholic institution has led to public criticism from 74 bishops and protests by anti-abortion activists. A fiercer battle may soon erupt over his likely selection of an abortion rights nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court.
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Such disputes, which raged during the 16 years of Obama’s two predecessors, had been marginalized by the economic crisis and defused by the new president’s popularity.
“These issues have been demoted by the economy,” said Andrew Kohut, director of the Pew Research Center in Washington. “But they will come back.”
David Axelrod, a White House strategist, acknowledges these battles are certain to reignite, though he predicted they may be less intense because of Obama’s desire for compromise.
“There are always going to be polarities in these fights,” Axelrod said. “But if you begin from a perspective of goodwill toward everyone, and the assumption that most Americans have very sincere views, you can reduce that conflict.” Obama’s domestic policy adviser, Melody Barnes, has brought together abortion rights proponents and opponents to explore common ground.
Fundamental differences “don’t foreclose the opportunity for us to have a conversation and to move forward” on programs to reduce unintended pregnancies and offer support for adoption, Barnes said.
Tim Roemer, a former Democratic congressman from Indiana who has degrees from Notre Dame, said the president was determined to overcome the tactics of Republicans, who “mastered the art of dividing people and creating red and blue states.”
Obama “is painting with purple, trying to establish common ground,” Roemer said.
At the National Right to Life Committee, an anti-abortion group in Washington, legislative director Doug Johnson said Obama’s conciliatory approach was “a smoke screen.”
Obama, he said, has antagonized anti-abortion activists by picking abortion rights supporters for top jobs in his administration, allowing more funding for embryonic stem cell research and lifting rules that barred funding to international groups that promote or offer abortion.
Another harbinger of the divisions over abortion came in a public opinion survey released Friday by the Gallup organization, which reported that 51 percent of Americans called themselves “pro-life” and 42 percent “pro-choice.” – Bloomberg
