Obama: Opponents lying on 'infanticide'

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LAKE FOREST, Calif., Aug. 17 (UPI) -- Likely Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama says his opponents are "lying" about his votes on abortion measures in the Illinois General Assembly.

In an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network Saturday, Obama was asked about criticism he has received for voting against the Induced Infant Liability Act in 2002. Some of Obama's harsher critics accuse him of supporting infanticide.

He said those critics "have not been telling the truth."

"And I hate to say that people are lying, but here's a situation where folks are lying," Obama said.

He said he publicly supported federal legislation to require assistance to any infant that was born "even if it was as a consequence of an induced abortion."

"That was not the bill that was presented at the state level," he said. "What that bill also was doing was trying to undermine Roe vs. Wade (the U.S. Supreme Court striking down a ban on abortion) decision."

Obama said Illinois already had a law "that insured life saving treatment was given to infants."