Right-wing media are turning to an old discredited smear to attack President Obama, reviving the bogus claim that while serving in the Illinois State Senate, Obama “voted for infanticide,” as Rush Limbaugh put it. Limbaugh went on to claim on his radio show today that “Barack Obama voted to allow babies who survived an abortion to go ahead and be killed”:

Limbaugh has made this same claim before, but it's as false today as it was then: Obama doesn't support infanticide.

In a “Fact Check,” the National Journal explained:

According to Politifact, an independent fact-checking organization that looked into similar claims made by former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum on the campaign trail, Obama voiced his opposition to the new legislation as a state senator because it would have given legal status to fetuses and would thus have been struck down by the courts, and because Illinois already had laws to ensure infants who survived abortions would be given medical attention.

Limbaugh was reacting to comments Newt Gingrich made during the Republican primary debate in Arizona, in which Gingrich said, “You did not once during the 2008 campaign ask why Barack Obama voted in favor of legalizing infanticide.”