Obama, The Abortion President

That's how one GOP member of Congress describes him:

One of the most outspoken abortion opponents in Congress labeled President Obama the "abortion president" on Friday in response to news that Obama intended to sign an executive order Monday lifting restrictions on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research.

Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., accused Obama of launching two attacks on pro-life measures. In addition to lifting President Bush's stem cell restrictions, Obama intends to lift regulations from the Bush administration that allow health care providers and institutions to refuse to participate in abortions on grounds of conscience.

Smith labeled Obama's stem cell policy an expansion of "human embryo experimentation."

"Why does the president persist in the dehumanizing of nascent human life when better alternatives exist? Human embryo-destroying stem cell research is not only unethical, unworkable and unreliable- it is now, demonstrably unnecessary," Smith said.

The long-promised move on stem cell research will allow a rush of research aimed at one day better treating, if not curing, ailments from diabetes to paralysis -- research that crosses partisan lines, backed by such notables as Nancy Reagan and the late Christopher Reeve. But it stirs intense controversy over whether government crosses a moral line with such research.

And let's not forget that one of Obama's first acts as president was to eliminate the prohibition against sending tax dollars to promote abortions overseas. He clearly is a fan of the procedure.

And in perfect parody, Scrappleface provides more detail on the rookie president's new stem cell order:

(2009-03-07) — As he signs an executive order Monday lifting limits on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research, President Barack Obama said he intends to make the wealthiest Americans “bear their fair share of the burden.”

Following through on his inaugural promise “to restore science to its rightful place, and wield technology’s wonders to raise health care’s quality and lower its cost“, the president will order the National Institutes of Health to extract stem cells from embryos whose parents earn more than $250,000 per year, and to inject them into “the sick and crippled middle class.”

“Let me be perfectly clear,” Mr. Obama said, “if your family earns less than $250,000 per year, the federal government will not harvest one single stem cell from your embryos…not one single cell. In fact, for 95 percent of working families, my stem cell plan contains nothing but miraculous healing. That’s right, the cures are on the way.”

It's too bad that Christopher Reeve didn't live to see the day that embryonic stem cells would make him walk again as John Edwards promised us.