Clinton and Abortion

In her build up to 2008 Hillary Clinton is demonstrating that she is no fool. Clinton seems to recognize that the abortion debate has done more than any single social issue to invigorate the Republican base and cement a political coalition between Catholics and Evangelicals where none would have existed 20 years ago. As the fleeing masses of Catholic Democrats have been increasing their numbers, and voice, within the Republican Party it appears that the Democrats have adopted the abortion issue as the key litmus test for both the approval of judicial nominees and for the individual ascension to prominent positions of vocal influence within the party. In the CNN column, “The Values Deficit”, this is keenly recognized:

Nowhere was the Democrats' intolerance more obvious than in the party leadership's refusal to allow the nation's most pro-worker governor, the only state chief executive who during the last serious recession refused to cut welfare payments to the neediest in his state, the late Robert Casey of Pennsylvania, from even speaking to the party's New York convention. Why? Because Bob Casey was pro-life. So much for tolerance.

The suppression of the best and brightest within one’s party due to the demand for compliance upon one uniquely polarizing issue (all other battles be damned) demonstrates a distinct lack of foresight that even the Republicans have not demonstrated (witness Giuliani, Schwarzenegger, and McCain).

Clinton in her determination to not befall the same fate as Kerry is gearing up to adopt a more accommodating position that would allow her to continue to appeal to her Pro-Choice base while not appearing as threatening to the religious groups demanding a moratorium upon all abortions. In a speech given yesterday to 1,000 abortion supporters Senator Clinton described abortion as a “sad, even tragic choice to many, many women" and further stated that there is a “common ground” between each sides of the bitterly divided debate.

This is a wise move by a shrewd Democrat who is seeking to reign in a larger base on an issue where Democrats have clearly been losing key political battles (particularly in the burgeoning South where another 2008 North-Eastern liberal candidate could spell déjà vu for a reeling Democratic party). The importance of abortion should not supersede other important and essential Democratic social values that, if enacted appropriately should lead to an improvement in the conditions that predispose to increasing rates of terminated pregnancies. “The Values Deficit” puts this quite succinctly:

If a young woman, facing an unplanned pregnancy, lived in an America that paid a living wage, had realistic welfare-to-work rules, available child care and early childhood intervention programs, then all available evidence tells us that that woman would be more likely to carry her baby to birth.

For the pro-life side to ignore the crucial importance of a genuine public support system in reducing the number of abortions is to insist irrationally that life begins at conception and ends at birth.