Claim: In the Illinois Legislature, Barack Obama "voted 'present,' instead of yes or no" on seven votes involving abortion rights.
Verdict: SUPPORTS

Retrieved passages:
title: Alan Keyes
text: your respect for God's will, and I think that that's what I'm doing in Illinois". Keyes, who opposes abortion in all cases "except as an inadvertent result of efforts to save the mother's life", said in a September 7, 2004 news conference that Jesus Christ would not vote for Obama because of votes that Obama—then a member of the Illinois Senate Judiciary committee and a lecturer in constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School—cast in 2001 against a package of three anti-abortion bills that Obama argued were too broad and unconstitutional. The legislation, which provided "that a live

title: Social policy of the Barack Obama administration
text: responded to the question as to when life begins, "Whether you're looking at it from a theological perspective or a scientific perspective, answering that question with specificity is above my pay grade." In the Illinois state legislature, Obama opposed the Induced Infant Liability Act and repeatedly voted against requirements and restrictions intended to stop what opponents label as "born alive" abortions. Obama said that his opposition was because of technical language he felt might have "interfered with a woman's right to choose" and said Illinois law "already required medical care in such situations." Obama voted against a bill that would

title: Jill Stanek
text: Act while state senator as well as his state senate floor testimony. She posted a vote tally on her blog showing that, during a March 12, 2003, meeting of the Illinois State Senate's Health and Human Services Committee, Committee Chairman Barack Obama prevented the passage of an amendment to Bill 1082 that would have conveyed "the rights of personhood upon any fetus expelled or extracted from the womb if that fetus was capable of breathing or voluntary motion." Stanek was critical of Sam Brownback of Kansas, a leading pro-life advocate, for compromising in supporting Barack Obama's nomination of pro-choice Kathleen

title: The Case Against Barack Obama
text: as a candidate appealing to reform-minded voters in the Hyde Park neighborhood of the city. The book dwells at length on Obama’s opposition to an Illinois bill that sought to protect infants “born alive,” but whose critics said it could have fundamentally undermined the right to abortion. A similar bill passed the United States Congress only after an explicit commitment to Roe v. Wade was added, which Freddoso dismisses as trivial, but which abortion rights advocates saw as crucial. A spokesman for Barack Obama's presidential campaign said the book, along with Jerome Corsi's biography, distorts the story of the candidate's

title: Jeanne Ives
text: post also wrote, "In his 2008 speech, Obama drew a link between children from fatherless homes and those who stray into crime." Ives voted against House Bill 8, concerned about a possible rise in litigation the bill would fuel. P.A. 98-1050 amends the Illinois Human Rights Act ("IHRA") and creates new responsibilities for employers with respect to their pregnant workers beyond those required under federal law. On October 28, 2017, Ives announced that she would challenge incumbent Governor Bruce Rauner in the Republican primary to become Illinois Governor. Her running mate was former State Representative Richard Morthland of Cordova, Illinois.

title: United States Senate career of Barack Obama
text: rival pro-choice candidates in the Democratic primary, for a series of "present" votes on late-term abortion and parental notification issues. The charge that Obama's "present" votes suggested he was not firmly pro choice was refuted by two lobbyists for pro-choice groups (including Planned Parenthood). In the general election of November 2004, Obama received 70% of the vote to Keyes's 27%, the largest victory margin for a statewide race in Illinois history. In July 2004, he wrote and delivered the keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston, Massachusetts. After describing his maternal grandfather's experiences as a World War

title: Alan Keyes
text: child born as a result of an abortion shall be fully recognized as a human person," passed the Republican-controlled Illinois Senate, but failed to pass out of the Democratic-controlled Illinois House Judiciary committee. After the election, Keyes declined to congratulate Obama, explaining that his refusal to congratulate Obama was "not anything personal", but was meant to make a statement against "extend[ing] false congratulations to the triumph of what we have declared to be across the line" of reasonable propriety. He said that Obama's position on moral issues regarding life and the family had crossed that line. "I'm supposed to make

title: 2000 Illinois's 1st congressional district election
text: Most of Obama's support came from White Americans. In mid-October, Rush’s son, Huey, was murdered, leading Obama to put his campaign on hold. Governor George Ryan called the Illinois Legislature to a special session to re-enact a package of gun-safety bills, a pet issue of Rush, which had been overturned by the Illinois Supreme Court. Obama supported the package, but the session dragged on towards Christmas. Obama annually spent the Christmas vacation in Hawaii with his family visiting his grandmother, who raised him. Obama left Illinois, expecting the session would continue into January. However, a crucial vote took place earlier

title: Barack Obama 2008 presidential primary campaign
text: And it is back to politics as usual." The January 21 CNN/Congressional Black Caucus debate in Myrtle Beach was the most heated face-to-face meeting yet between the candidates, reflecting apparent personal animosity. Clinton criticized Obama for voting "present" on many occasions while in the Illinois legislature. "It's hard to have a straight up debate with you because you never take responsibility for any vote," she said. Obama explained that Illinois had a different system than Congress and that 'present' votes had a different function and use in the Illinois Senate. Obama said that he was working to help unemployed workers

title: Jeanne Ives
text: publicly funded abortion on demand bill into law in late September. The poll, conducted for Capitolfax newsletter subscribers Oct. 25–29, found Rauner leading Ives 64–19, with 16 percent undecided. The poll had a margin of error of +/-3 percent. According to the poll, 83% of Republican voters have never heard of Ives. In a guest piece in the "Daily Herald", Ives stated "We are 48th in the nation in serving those with developmental disabilities. Instead of reforming our Medicaid system, Gov. Rauner expanded it -- hurting those who need help the most." The Illinois Parents of Adults with Developmental Disabilities,

title: Right to life
text: Senator Joe Biden, a Catholic took this view in the 2008 election. In September 2017, Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner signed HB40, a bill that expanded taxpayer-subsidized abortions for women who used either Medicaid or state employee insurance for their healthcare. Abortion was already covered in cases of rape, incest and when there was a threat to the health and life of the mother. The law expanded the Medicaid coverage beyond those limited cases. Illinois Right to Life estimated that the new law would lead to approximately 12,000 extra abortions each year, costing over $21 million. They based their numbers on

title: Jeanne Ives
text: Nonexistent Tax Dollars To No-Limits Abortions." after Governor Bruce Rauner signed HB-40 into law. The bill ensures that abortion remains legal in Illinois even if the U.S. Supreme Court overturns "Roe v. Wade", while also allowing women with Medicaid and state-employee health insurance to use their coverage for abortions. The article states that "Gov. Bruce Rauner signed into law a bill forcing taxpayers to fund abortion at any time, for any reason. The cost of this law could approach $20 million." Illinois law prohibits abortions once a fetus is considered viable (which is around 23–24 weeks gestation), except in cases

title: 2004 United States Senate elections
text: form of late-term abortion. Obama ran the most successful Senate campaign in 2004, and was so far ahead in polls that he soon began to campaign outside of Illinois in support of other Democratic candidates. He gave large sums of campaign funds to other candidates and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and sent many of his volunteers to work on other races, including that of eventual three-term Congresswoman Melissa Bean who defeated then-Congressman Phil Crane in that year's election. Obama and Keyes differed on many issues including school vouchers and tax cuts, both of which Keyes supported and Obama opposed.

title: Rino Fisichella
text: him for interfering. On 24 January 2009, he urged US President Barack Obama to listen to all voices in America without "the arrogance of those who, being in power, believe they can decide of life and death." When Obama ended the ban on U.S. funding of organizations that discuss and perform abortion in the developing world, he said: "among the many good things that he could have done, Barack Obama instead has chosen the worst. If this is one of the first acts of President Obama, with all due respect, it seems to me that the path toward disappointment has

title: Randall Terry
text: at the May 17 Commencement of the University of Notre Dame. Terry declared that Notre Dame, being one of the foremost Catholic universities in the nation, should not have allowed Obama to speak. Terry's main objection was that Obama supports abortion rights. He was quoted in an article to the University's newspaper, "The Observer", stating that he planned to make the commencement "a circus." Terry was arrested May 1, 2009, on the Notre Dame campus for violating a no-trespass order. He posted a bond of $250 at the St. Joseph County Jail and was released the same day, and assigned

title: Illinois Senate elections of Barack Obama
text: Senate. In the November 3, 1998 general election, Democratic Party candidate Obama was re-elected to a four-year term as state senator for the 13th District with 45,486 votes (89.17%); Republican Party candidate Yesse Yehudah received 5,526 (10.83%). On September 5, 2001, Democrats won a lottery that added a tie-breaking ninth member (Michael Bilandic) to the bipartisan state Legislative Redistricting Commission, which on September 25, 2001, by a 5–4 party-line vote approved the Democratic map called "Currie II as amended by the Bilandic Amendment" after its Legislative Redistricting Commission member authors, state Rep. Barbara Flynn Currie (D-25) of Hyde Park and

title: Carl Gunter Jr.
text: pulls a gun on me and gets away with it." In 1987, Gloria Williams Hearn, a fellow Democrat and an educator, challenged Gunter for reelection. He prevailed with 8,507 votes (61 percent) to her 5,402 ballots (39 percent). In 1991, Louisiana State Senator Allen Ray Bares (pronounced BAH REZ) of Lafayette sponsored a bill to outlaw most abortions in Louisiana. The National Organization for Women's national secretary, Kim Gandy, originally from Bossier City, directed a nine-month-long "grassroots organizing and recruiting effort" against the bill. In a debate over the bills provision regarding incest, Gunter stated that "That's how we get

title: Frank A. Hoffmann
text: President Barack Obama in March 2010. Hoffmann added: "Louisiana is a very pro-life state," and his legislative district in the northeastern quadrant of the state is particularly conservative. The legislature also denies medical malpractice protection to doctors who perform certain elective abortions and gives the state the authority to shut down abortion clinics deemed not in compliance with the law. Hoffman is a strong supporter of the law which requires that all women who have abortions in Louisiana must first view an ultrasound picture of the child before they undergo the procedure. The new policy also applies in cases of

title: Susan B. Anthony List
text: Rice was unqualified for Vice President due to her describing herself as "mildly pro-choice". In August, SBA released an ad featuring anti-abortion activist Melissa Ohden who says she survived an abortion in 1977. The ad criticized Barack Obama, claiming that while serving in the Illinois Senate, he voted four times to deny medical care to infants born alive during failed abortion procedures. In a 2008 analysis, FactCheck drew a mixed conclusion overall, finding both the SBA List and Obama had made misleading and/or inaccurate comments regarding Obama's voting record on the topic in question while he served in the United

title: Bruce Rauner
text: perform abortions for religious or moral reasons to refer patients to places where they can have an abortion instead. The bill was passed on partisan lines, without a single Republican legislator voting for the bill, and Rauner's decision to sign the bill into law angered conservative groups. The same day, Rauner also signed a bill that "extends insurance coverage for nearly all contraceptives". On August 5, Rauner was sued by a crisis pregnancy center, a Rockford, Illinois-based medical center, and a Downers Grove physician, claiming that SB 1564 is unconstitutional. On December 20, 2016, a Winnebago County Circuit Judge issued