The Born-Alive Act and the Undoing of Obama

Posted: Wednesday, August 20, 2008
In the hands of Barack Obama the meaning of "moral" is recast: What does it mean to say that abortion is a "moral" question and yet it must depend on judgments that are wholly subjective and personal, and which cannot be judged as true or false? For Obama, a "moral" question is one for which reason can supply no judgment, and the judgment may turn finally turn on nothing more than self-interest.  [Full Story]

Abortion Politics 2008

Posted: Monday, December 17, 2007
There is in Rudy Giuliani's campaign a sobering truth that cannot be evaded: The nomination and election of Rudy Giuliani would mark the end of the Republican party as the pro-life party in our politics.  [Full Story]

Contra Frum on Giuliani
An argument within the family.
Posted: Monday, December 10, 2007
David Frum's defense of Rudy Giuliani signs on to the main vice exhibited by the Republican establishment: that the task of dealing with this issue of abortion is not the business of the political class or the elected leadership.  [Full Story]

Building Democracy

Posted: Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Allan Greenberg's Architecture of Democracy: American Architecture and the Legacy of the Revolution delivers a gentle but telling jolt to ordinary folk by alerting them to the things all around them -- to those buildings, those structures of cities, so familiar to them that they no longer notice them.   [Full Story]

Don't Throw Us into That Briar Patch

Posted: Friday, June 15, 2007
With their panicky recoil from the Supreme Court's recent partial-birth abortion ruling, the partisans of abortion are now behind the push to have the states start legislating again on abortion. With each move, they affirm the premise that the legislatures may indeed legislate on this subject.   [Full Story]

Good May Yet Come
Gonzales v. Carhart opens up a possibility, albeit slight, for further restricting abortion.
Posted: Tuesday, April 24, 2007
The partial-birth decision was severely limited and diminished in its practical effects. But rightly or wrongly, there may be a sense that the decision opens the doors now; that it invites legislators and political men and women to deliver themselves from the reign of judges, and set their hands to this task once again.  [Full Story]

Lawyers@Bay
A moment of truth in Massachusetts.
Posted: Tuesday, January 2, 2007
In the aftermath of Christmas, the legislature of Massachusetts has now been visited by the Supreme Judicial Court, and the members should be seeing two ghosts from the past: the specter of George Wallace, standing outside the door of a school in Alabama to defy the order of a court, and the late Joseph Welch, paragon of the legal establishment in Boston, with his words to Senator McCarthy, "At long last, have you left no sense of decency?"  [Full Story]

This Heartbreaking Court

Posted: Monday, November 27, 2006
Both sides in the culture war over abortion have been readying themselves for the decision of the Supreme Court this fall on partial-birth abortion. Both sides expect a decision portentous and astounding -- for people on both sides seriously expect the Court will use its decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. That is not likely to be the case.  [Full Story]

Where a Loss Will Hurt
The pro-life cause will take a hit if the Democrats win the House.
Posted: Tuesday, November 7, 2006
Pro-lifers don't have to be told what a difference it makes to have a Republican congress, joined to an administration containing their friends. But if parts of the Republican base are determined to show their anger by striking at the targets nearest at hand, they will visit the most lasting damage on the pro-life cause.  [Full Story]

Paging Dr. Weldon
Winning in the little things -- with big effects.
Posted: Thursday, July 13, 2006
Under the Weldon Amendment, all federal funds would be withdrawn from instruments of federal, state, and local governments that discriminate against "health care providers" that refuse to provide abortions, refer patients for the surgery, or cover the surgery in their own medical plans. The political class that forms the regime now in California complains that the Weldon Amendment works to prevent California from enforcing its public policy. Yes; exactly right. And a good day's work that is.  [Full Story]