Monday, June 04, 2007

Anti-Abortion Groups Infighting

I guess the anti-abortion groups are going through their own bit of in-fighting. Basically it comes down the purists who want abortion banned entirely right now and the slightly more realistic types like James Dobson, who understand movements aren’t won in a day. However, even the purists seem to understand you can’t always trust your allies on an issue. “Wow, you mean you’ve been using partial-birth abortion as a wedge to raise money for Republicans? We’re shocked!”

In [Brian Rohrbough, president of Colorado Right to Life]’s view, partisan politics is also involved.

"What happened in the abortion world is that groups like National Right to Life, they're really a wing of the Republican Party, and they're not geared to push for personhood for an unborn child -- they're geared to getting Republicans elected," he said. "So we're seeing these ridiculous laws like the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban put forward, and then we're deceived about what they really do."
Purists exist in all movements but I don’t really think this is going to deeply fracture the anti-abortion movement when they realize what the term realpolitik means.

However even I was shocked when I read this quote from Focus on the Family vice president Tom Minnery.

Doctors adopted the late-term procedure "out of convenience," Minnery added. "The old procedure, which is still legal, involves using forceps to pull the baby apart in utero, which means there is greater legal liability and danger of internal bleeding from a perforated uterus. So we firmly believe there will be fewer later-term abortions as a result of this ruling."

So let me get this straight, Minnery, and by extension Focus on the Family, is gleeful because they managed to make sure that more women will likely be in danger of internal bleeding from a perforated uterus? I don't think I've ever read a quote from a so-called Christian group that is so openly happy about someone else's pain and suffering (which they'd hoped they caused). I wish Anthony Kennedy would read Minnery’s quote so he knows where the motivation for all those amicus briefs from anti-abortion groups stem from.

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