handicapping the pro-life movement

ana marie cox, on abortion, and the tiller murder:

"If someone believes that abortion is murder, someone like Tiller would necessarily seem reprehensible.

There are no good parallels, but I think there's weight to the one a lot of young pro-life conservatives I know use: Would you ask an abolitionist to think more charitably about a slaveowner?

You can ask a pro-life person to believe in the essential humanity of someone like Tiller, you can expect a pro-life person to honor Tiller's 'right to live,' but you can't reasonably expect any kind of sympathy.

Nothing, however, justifies a citizen's cold-blooded murder of someone he disagrees with, no matter what level of moral outrage that disagreement reaches. And Tiller's murder -- at his church, in front of friends and family -- is itself such a moral outrage that I think it's set back the pro-life movement at least several years, if not a decade.

I know I don't feel a whole lot of sympathy for them right now."

kansas, o'reilly & tiller the killer

a patient of dr. george tiller recounts, in heartbreaking detail, the situation that led her to a late-term abortion:

The baby had spina bifida. There was definitely an opening from L1-L3 but they couldn't tell anymore than that. Then they proceeded to the baby's heart and showed us the echogenic foci that could be indicative of Down syndrome. The baby's lesion was larger than they had originally thought, it now appeared to be from L1-L5. The most horrible part was that the baby had developed ventriculomegaly: fluid on the brain. At this point, it had yet to affect the size of the baby's head. I laid on the table crying and knowing in my heart at that point my son was not going to make it.

agree with her or not, this woman's entire account helps one realize that these decisions are not made willy-nilly, but are highly personal, agonizing choices made between a woman and her doctor.

knowing this woman's kansas story also gives frightening perspective to this:

uh, yeah...about that dhs warning

"the person who drafted the outrageous homeland security memo smearing veterans and conservatives should be fired!"

– tweeted newt gingrich

"its contents read like the paranoid accusations of liberal bloggers and leftwing shills on msnbc and elsewhere!"

– decried newsbusters' noel sheppard

"the piece of crap report issued on april 7 is a sweeping indictment of conservatives!"

– screeched michelle malkin

but portions of an april department of homeland security report suggesting a threat of domestic terrorism from "right-wing extremists" that “may include groups and individuals that are dedicated to a single issue, such as opposition to abortion or immigration” seem eerily prophetic considering yesterday's grim news about the murder of dr. george tiller.

tiller, a kansas OB/GYN who did adoptions, saved lives, performed operations, and also performed late-term abortions, was shot to death in church, while his wife sang in the church choir. the suspect in custody (a conservative by malkin's standards) was reportedly a follower of the anti-abortion group operation rescue.

the april dhs report was widely criticized by the right for many things, some perhaps legitimate. but here's a case where it might have been a good idea to sort the wheat from the chaff, and some think it might be time to re-examine some of that criticism.

memo to notre dame protesters:

may 17, 2009

More than 87,000 names have been added to an online petition launched by a conservative Catholic group calling for the University of Notre Dame to rescind its invitation to President Obama to speak at its May 17 commencement ceremony.

The petition calls it "an outrage and a scandal" and says the president's pro-choice views and support for embryonic stem cell research "directly contradict fundamental Catholic teachings on life and marriage."

january 17, 1995 – december 21, 2000

During [George W.] Bush's six years as governor 150 men and two women were executed in Texas—a record unmatched by any other governor in modern American history.

april 16, 2001

President George W. Bush will be the principal speaker and the recipient of an honorary doctor of laws degree at the University of Notre Dame's 156th Commencement exercises May 20 (Sunday).