After Obama’s Presser: “Simply” Forward to the Next 100 Days
Really I’m not single-minded.
I watched every minute of President Obama’s 100 Days Press Conference (transcript here). I was enchanted by the reporter who asked Obama what had “enchanted, troubled, surprised, and humbled” him since taking office. Even though a quick wit said that sounded like a Facebook quiz, I thought it livened up the other, more predictable questions.
The answer I liked best was what surprised him, as reported in the Los Angeles Times:
“I am surprised, compared to where I started, by the number of critical issues coming to a head all at the same time.” When he first starting running for office, Iraq was dominant. The economy was an issue. “Obviously I did not anticipate the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.” So unlike new administrations that deal with three big issues, he says, his has about eight to address.
It was delivered with a sense of humor, making light of the many problems on his plate and eliciting gentle laughter. The laughter at these events always sounds gentle. No big guffaws. More of a gentlepersonly acknowledgment that something humorous has been said that makes the president more human.
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Obama observed that every generation faces challenges and we will meet ours. This reminded me of the late Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir’s observation that every generation finds it necessary to negotiate compromises with its own values. That thought was still in my mind when Obama was asked the inevitable torture question and he invoked Winston Churchill’s objections to using torture because it wasn’t in keeping with Britain’s values. Waterboarding is torture, he said, and he acknowledged that the U.S. had waterboarded. This is huge. No compromise there.
I was about to turn into a little puddle of warm butter over this amazing man–his intellect, grasp of the issues, candor, sense of ethics.
But then came this exchange with Ed Henry, and I snapped out of it. Really, I’m not single-minded but old habits die hard, and I couldn’t help but pay special attention:
Thank you, Mr. President. In a couple of weeks, you’re going to be giving the commencement at Notre Dame. And, as you know, this has caused a lot of controversy among Catholics who are opposed to your position on abortion.
As a candidate, you vowed that one of the very things you wanted to do was sign the Freedom of Choice Act, which, as you know, would eliminate federal, state and local restrictions on abortion. And at one point in the campaign when asked about abortion and life, you said that it was above — quote, “above my pay grade.”
Now that you’ve been president for 100 days, obviously, your pay grade is a little higher than when you were a senator.
(LAUGHTER)
Do you still hope that Congress quickly sends you the Freedom of Choice Act so you can sign it?
OBAMA: You know, the — my view on — on abortion, I think, has been very consistent. I think abortion is a moral issue and an ethical issue.
I think that those who are pro-choice make a mistake when they — if they suggest — and I don’t want to create straw men here, but I think there are some who suggest that this is simply an issue about women’s freedom and that there’s no other considerations. I think, look, this is an issue that people have to wrestle with and families and individual women have to wrestle with.
What? I thought. Oh nuts, why did he have to say reproductive rights are not “simply” about women’s rights. “Simply”? He can dismiss his daughters lives and rights so “simply”? The exchange continued with this example of what happens when a politician doesn’t shut his mouth when he should.
The reason I’m pro-choice is because I don’t think women take that — that position casually. I think that they struggle with these decisions each and every day.
So tell me, Mr. President, why is is only ok for women to have moral agency in the matter of unintended pregnancy–why is it only ok for them to have reproductive justice–if they “struggle”? Of course it is true that women do consider their options carefully and many do struggle with their decisions. But the point here is not to make women suffer and struggle, but rather to support their fundamental human rights to make their own childbearing decisions without Congressional oversight.
He segued to how he prefers reducing unwanted pregnancies–that’s good, so do we all. He continued:
And so I’ve got a task force within the Domestic Policy Council in the West Wing of the White House that is working with groups both in the pro-choice camp and in the pro-life camp, to see if we can arrive at some consensus on that.
Now, the Freedom of Choice Act is not highest legislative priority. I believe that women should have the right to choose. But I think that the most important thing we can do to tamp down some of the anger surrounding this issue is to focus on those areas that we can agree on. And that’s — that’s where I’m going to focus.
Sigh. Apparently neither does he intend to prioritize the Prevention First Act, flagship legislation which would expand access to family planning services to prevent unintended pregnancy. The quest for that elusive common ground is his priority–perhaps along with peace in the Middle East—not making sure that people have access to family planning and comprehensive sex education, and the Office of Faith Based and Neighborhood Partnerships appears to be in the lead.
I’m more than mindful of and appreciate all he has done for women in these 100 days. I know what a sea change it represents from the Bush administration–I was there on the frontlines after all.
Still, prochoice and women’s groups must get around Obama and explain what was demeaning and just plain wrong about the parts of his answer that still fail to recognize women as moral and legal equals.
As Day 101 becomes 102 and beyond, you can keep tabs on the president’s actions and policies on reproductive rights, health, and justice here–check back often to see progress:
GLORIA FELDT is the New York Times bestselling author of several books including No Excuses: 9 Ways Women Can Change How We Think About Power, a sought-after speaker and frequent contributor to major news outlets, and the Co-Founder and President of Take The Lead. People has called her “the voice of experience,” and among the many honors she has been given, Vanity Fair called her one of America’s “Top 200 Women Legends, Leaders, and Trailblazers,” and Glamour chose her as a “Woman of the Year.”
As co-founder and president of Take The Lead, a leading women’s leadership nonprofit, her mission is to achieve gender parity by 2025 through innovative training programs, workshops, a groundbreaking 50 Women Can Change The World immersive, online courses, a free weekly newsletter, and events including a monthly Virtual Happy Hour program and a Take The Lead Day symposium that reached over 400,000 women globally in 2017.