Posted on 04/22/2007 11:44:15 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
After the Supreme Court upheld the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act on Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said at a news conference: "I would only say that this isn't the only decision that a lot of us wish that [Justice Samuel] Alito weren't there and [former justice Sandra Day] O'Connor were there." Does that mean Reid was repudiating his 2003 Senate vote in favor of the bill? No, he told me Thursday, he was talking about other decisions by Alito.
Reid, an effective legislator and canny politician, reflects a dilemma on abortion among Democrats, currently flying high against dispirited Republicans. Delivering a fetus and then crushing its skull, a procedure called "partial birth" abortion by its critics, is massively unpopular. Its prohibition is favored 61 percent to 28 percent in a Fox News poll from March 2006. The late Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, a pro-choice Democrat, called the practice "infanticide." But the abortion rights lobby is adamant against any erosion of Roe v. Wade.
The leading Democratic presidential candidates -- Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (who voted against the ban in 2003), Sen. Barack Obama, former senator John Edwards and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson -- lashed out against Wednesday's ruling. The party's tone was set on the House floor Thursday by Rep. Carolyn Maloney, who represents the "Silk Stocking" district of New York, which includes Manhattan's Upper East Side: "We need to stand up to right-wing, conservative extremist efforts and protect the basic rights of women."
But 17 Democratic senators voted for the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act (it passed 64 to 34).
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
That’s a good article, but not as fun as the comments the washington post actually keeps up.
“Novak is carrying the water for Cheney and the religious right. He knows who pays his bills. This supreme decision was bought and paid for in Florida when Harris purged the voter rolls and James Baker and Cheney requested Rehnquist stop the counting of votes. Hes just another Jew for Jesus.”
Anyone who supports the “right” of partial birth abortion is either ignorant of the specifics and purpose of the procedure or more likely, a cynical twisted soul.
but if they saw a video
it would be outlawed instantly.
The tv show HOUSE showed a fetus in the womb- fully formed the size of a lizard shaped like (duh) a baby. i can’t imagine seeing that and thinking that gruesome procedure is anything but infanticide.
“Disspirited Republicans”. Did you all get that? It’s a wonder he didn’t mention FR by name.
That statement ought to lose him votes in Nevada. (I hope)
Abortion is bad enough. How can someone be in favor of partial-birth abortion? Thank God for Bush signing this ban.
Like you, I choose to believe most of the 28% have no idea what a partial birth abortion is. Our institutions are so warped that so called abuse of terrorists at Gitmo generate magnitudes more attention than 40+ million murdered babies.
“The late Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, a pro-choice Democrat, called the practice “infanticide.””
All abortion is infanticide. The Democrats are proud members of the Culture of Death, and this decision eroded a small piece of that culture. We “right wing, conservative extremists” will keep eroding.
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