Obama's Most Partisan Appointments and Nominations, Part 2: The Women

The list of women appointed or nominated to some very important posts in the Obama administration is also overloaded to the left.

Dawn Johnsen - nominated for Assistant Attorney General in the Office of Legal Counsel in the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). Not yet confirmed to the position.

Dawn Johnsen dedicated her earlier career to the promotion of abortion without restrictions. First working for the ACLU to protect abortion rights, she then joined NARAL (Pro-Choice America) and became legal director. She opposes all bans on partial-birth abortion (PBA). PBA is the gruesome procedure by which a doctor pulls the baby partially out and then crushes the skull of a baby to remove it, moments before it would be classified as a live birth.

As stated in Part 1, liberals often assume that conservative appointees and nominees will inject their personal views into their public office. Although her position in the Justice Department may have little to do with women's issues, Johnsen's personal pro-choice views could possibly skew her opinion about Americans' and parents' rights to opinion on abortion, taxpayer dollars on abortions and future judicial nominees who may lean pro-life. Even Democratic Nebraska Senator Ben Nelson raised concerns over Johnsen's significant stand on abortion.

Kathleen Sebelius, Director of Health and Human Services (HHS), recently sworn into this position after being nominated by Obama and confirmed. She is a former Governor of Kansas.

As Governor of Kansas, Sebelius opposed and vetoed several pieces of pro-life legislation from 2003 to 2007, including parental notification before a minor can have a surgical abortion; waiting periods before having an abortion; and informed consent laws requiring abortionists to inform women about abortion procedure risks.

As recently as 2008, Sebelius vetoed a bill that would have strengthened the state's ban on late-term abortions by allowing private lawsuits against providers. She also vetoed a bill calling for improved sanitation in abortion clinics and one that would require specific medical reasons for late-term abortions.Pro-choicers are always claiming to protect women's health and rights. Wouldn't improved sanitation and confirming a medical need for late-term abortion only serve to protect women's health and rights?

Governor Sebelius' alleged ties to Kansas' most notorious late-term abortionist George Tiller, and campaign contributions from him, could not be confirmed by this writer except at the most conservative websites. There are no crossover reports at this time.

Some of the senators that voted for her have pro-life records. This could have happened for two reasons: (1) They are out of touch with their constituents' desires (see the Gallup Poll below), or (2) Senators are too busy to read up on each candidate. Someone in their office is doing so, and who can really be assured of the personal views of those working in their offices?

Ellen Moran, Obama's newly appointed White House Communications Director, is a former executive director of Emily's List, an organization that seeks to fund and support the election of only pro-choice Democratic women into influential government positions. Somebody please prove this isn't a conflict of interest.

In a new Gallup Poll, 51% of Americans are pro-life and 42% are pro-choice. This is a big change from a 1995 poll, where the "pro-life" camp was only 33%, compared to "pro-choice" respondents at 56%. Notice both polls leave a significant number of people still sitting on the fence about abortion (non-committal American citizens is one of our biggest problems on many issues).

Gallup's analysis of these results: "With the first pro-choice president in eight years already making changes to the nation's policies on funding abortion overseas, expressing his support for the Freedom of Choice Act, and moving toward rescinding federal job protections for medical workers who refuse to participate in abortion procedures, Americans- and, in particular, Republicans -seem to be taking a step back from the pro-choice position. However, the retreat is evident among political moderates as well as conservatives."

Conclusion: It is unbelievable that President Obama couldn't see his way to finding one moderately conservative, qualified man or woman to throw into this mix. Instead of making good on his promise to stop partisanship, he has shown himself totally against pro-life and national sovereignty concerns with these nominations and appointments.

Once again, please note that great care was taken to find balanced, fact-based sources of information.

Sources:
Dawn Johnson,http://www.whorunsgov.com/Profiles/Dawn_Johnsen;
http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/blog/2009/04/24/senate-republicans-throw-obstacles-before-sebelius-johnsen-nominations.
Kathleen Sebelius,http://www.whorunsgov.com/Profiles/Kathleen_Sebelius.
Ellen Moran,http://www.whorunsgov.com/Profiles/Ellen_Moran.
Gallup Poll, http://www.gallup.com/poll/118399/More-Americans-Pro-Life-Than-Pro-Choice-First-Time.aspx.