The news has been particularly good of late for the pro-life movement. Gov. Rick Perry and the Texas legislature persevered through mob tactics and extremist grandstanding to pass a sensible bill supported by the vast majority of Texans. Planned Parenthood plans to close three clinics in Texas and four in Wisconsin (it’s not much, but it’s a start). Virginia’s busiest abortion clinic has closed, unable to meet new health and safety requirements. In Mississippi, the last abortion clinic in the state is one decent judicial decision away from extinction. Court after court has rejected the administration’s abortion-pill mandate. And that’s hardly the complete round-up of recent pro-life success.
Thank you, President Obama. Your pro-abortion extremism has brought the fight squarely onto ground where the pro-life movement is at its strongest. Your transition from the Clinton administration’s “safe, legal, and rare” rhetoric to something more like “anytime, anyplace, anywhere” has not only repulsed Americans from coast to coast, it’s also helped shine a bright light on the radicals at Planned Parenthood and NARAL.
Go ahead, keep calling Wendy Davis and Sandra Fluke, that just gives the pro-life movement more opportunity to go into state legislatures and talk about their extremism and devotion to the cult of death.
Oh, and the Todd Akin talking point is nearing its shelf-life. That worked for a while, but the longer you oppose protections for women in the post-Gosnell era, the more you isolate yourself with your friends on the fringe. Further, with our debt still spiraling out of control, your party’s recent willingness to shut down the government, if necessary, to preserve funding for Planned Parenthood, is far more offensive than one has-been politician’s expression of a misguided opinion.
News flash: Neither the Huffington Post nor the New York Times dominate the news cycle in Texas, Tennessee, or any other red state considering sensible and legal restrictions designed to protect women and their babies.
Few things move public opinion in our direction better than honesty from the pro-abortion crowd. You really do want fewer restrictions on abortion than on ear piercings or tattoos. You really do want to override our faith—and our constitutional heritage of religious liberty—to subsidize your devotion to the large-scale killing of our nation’s most innocent and vulnerable citizens. Just keep talking, Mr. President. The citizens of Manhattan may love it, but out here in the hinterlands, you’re motivating us to save lives.
David French is a senior counsel at the American Center for Law and Justice. This article is crossposted at National Review Online.