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WASHINGTON, D.C., February 13, 2013, (LifeSiteNews.com) – President Barack Obama did not clearly address the issue of abortion in last night's State of the Union Address, usually a time to unveil specific policy proposals before the nation. However, in an address that focused mostly on economics, he made several references to homosexuals, including those serving in the military.

In the most impassioned rhetoric of the night, he said, “What I've said matters little if we don't come together to protect our most precious resource, our children.” His topic, however, was not about abortion but gun control, his proffered solution to mass shooting victims, whom he cited in rising cadences.

The president may have made an oblique reference to his commitment to expand contraceptive use and its abortion backup during his discussion of the Third World.

To promote “progress in the most impoverished parts of our world,” he promised, “the United States will join with our allies to eradicate such extreme poverty in the next two decades: by connecting more people to the global economy and empowering women.”

The Obama administration's delegation at international events has held that “empowerment” means counting contraception and abortion as fundamental to “human development,” and perhaps an inalienable human right, a strategy that comports with the tactics of the United Nations and some global charities.

“It’s striking that the president did not mention the Life issue tonight, despite the long catalogue of other issues he did choose to address,” said Americans United for Life President Dr. Charmaine Yoest. “The president helped create a health care law that intertwines abortion and funding for life-ending drugs and devices throughout.”

“It is irresponsible of the president to insist that Americans pay for life-ending drugs and devices as well as for a medical procedure without also requiring a full reporting of the consequences of such a choice,” she added. Currently, all abortion reporting is voluntary, and some states such as California refuse to provide any statistics. The president's “nonchalance about deaths and complications from a procedure performed routinely on American women is unconscionable,Dr. Yoest said.

Susan B. Anthony List President Marjorie Dannenfelser said the president may have chosen to omit abortion from the State of the Union because he is out of the mainstream of American opinion on abortion. “Will President Obama side with the 87 percent of Americans who believe healthcare professionals should be protected from having to participate in procedures they find morally objectionable? Will he agree with the 72 percent of Americans who object to taxpayer funding of abortion? Can he find common ground with the 63 percent of Americans, including 70 percent of women, who support a ban on abortion past the point at which an unborn child can feel pain?” she asked.

Citing recent polls, she wrote, “Whether or not they identify themselves as ‘pro-life’ or ‘pro-choice,’ Americans oppose more abortions than they support, whereas President Obama has yet to identify one instance where he would protect the life of the unborn child. Last year, he even refused to support a ban on sex-selective abortion – lethal sex-discrimination – even though such legislation is supported by 77 percent of Americans and a whopping 80 percent of women.”

At a chamber before all branches of the United States government – except Supreme Court justices Scalia, Thomas, and Alito – President Obama instead focused on the more poll-friendly issue of homosexuality.

Early on he said it was his administration's “unfinished task to restore the basic bargain that built this country,” including championing people regardless of “who you love.”

“We will ensure equal treatment for all service members, and equal benefits for their families – gay and straight,” he said. The president dropped the “Don't Ask, Don't Tell” policy instituted by President Bill Clinton and allowed homosexuals to serve openly in the military, something experts worry will harm group cohesion.

“We will draw upon the courage and skills of our sisters and daughters, because women have proven under fire that they are ready for combat,” he added.

In a segment of his hour-long address that garnered largely positive reviews among social conservatives, President Obama promised to “strengthen families by removing the financial deterrents to marriage for low-income couples, and doing more to encourage fatherhood.

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He added, “What makes you a man isn’t the ability to conceive a child; it’s having the courage to raise one.” Many believe the president's often curt references to fatherlessness stem from his own upbringing, which he wrote in his autobiography was “shaped more by” his father's “absence than by his presence.”

Earlier in the day, the Family Research Council unveiled two new reports showing the importance of “family intactness” on social policies, such as child poverty, welfare dependence, educational attainment, and out-of-wedlock births.

Children born outside of marriage are nearly six times as likely to be poor than those born to married parents,” noted Rachel Sheffield of the Heritage Foundation.

Out-of-wedlock births, she wrote, are “creating a two-caste society with marriage and education as the divide. Lower-income Americans and, increasingly more so, those in “middle America” are having children outside of marriage, putting themselves and their children at risk for poverty.

President Obama did not specify how he intended to strengthen families.

Dr. W. Bradford Wilcox, an expert on the family at the University of Virginia, speculated he could determine which welfare programs make the poor less likely to get married, or simply issue “low-income couples a check equal to the penalty they incur from marrying.”

However, at least one leader at the Family Research Center saw the president's stance as irreconcilable.

“He calls for fatherhood as a moral imperative, but wants to redefine marriage,” said Rob Schwarzwalder, senior vice president of FRC.

The president may also be at odds with himself in his plan to expand preschool programs, such as Head Start, which take children out of the home and place them in the care of others.

Barack Obama pressed the issue of amnesty for illegal aliens, as well as alternative energy, and rebuilding infrastructure in the economic portion of his speech.