Reviving “Born Alive” Smear, Hoft Falsely Claims Obama Voted To “Support Infanticide”

The past week has seen a spike in Jim Hoft's Obama Derangement Syndrome. And it's just getting worse.

In a Gateway Pundit post today, Hoft uses reports of a Philadelphia abortion doctor charged with murdering viable babies to revive the years-old claim that President Obama, while serving in Illinois Senate, “voted 4 times to support infanticide -- to kill babies who survive abortion.”

As Media Matters has repeatedly noted, this is false.

Hoft is misleadingly referencing Obama's opposition in the Illinois legislature to legislation that amended the Illinois Abortion Law of 1975. Opponents of the bill noted that the legislation was unnecessary, as the Illinois criminal code unequivocally prohibits killing children, and said that the bill posed a threat to abortion rights. When tasked by the Illinois attorney general's office with investigating allegations that fetuses born alive at an Illinois hospital were abandoned without treatment -- the alleged incident that inspired the “Born Alive Act” -- the Illinois Department of Public Health reportedly said that it was unable to substantiate the allegations but said that if the allegations had proved true, the conduct alleged would have been a violation of existing Illinois law. The Obama presidential campaign subsequently cited specific provisions of the Illinois Compiled Statutes in stating that the “born alive principle was already the law in Illinois.”

In no way does Obama “support infanticide.” This is yet another shameless, desperate attack by Hoft.