It’s always puzzled me why the GOP can tolerate and accommodate pro-choice folks in its party but Dems can’t do the same with anti-abortionists. NARAL Pro-Choice America has dropped its opposition to a federal bill requiring anesthesia for fetuses over 20 weeks old, according to the New York Times. A similar bill has passed the Virginia House of Delegates, with support from a few Democrats, and awaits Senate action.
While I support Roe v. Wade, I wish the Dems and pro-choice folks would focus more on measures that obviate abortions and hold Republicans accountable when they are indifferent to such measures, as when they withhold funding (scroll down story) from groups like Planned Parenthood.
UPDATE: The New Republic blog and Washington Monthly’s Political Animal have more on the issue of Dems using contraception as a “wedge” issue. I’ve written before how, at least in Virginia, there’s seems to be a move to restrict contraception, given the bill against Planned Parenthood and the defeat of Sen. Mary Margaret Whipple’s effort to define contraception so it can’t be considered abortion. Focusing on contraception may be a way to flush out and isolate the wing-nuts.