The REAL Abortion Extremists

It's obvious that Democrats are going to make abortion rights a central part of their convention, in an effort to forward the tired "war on women" meme that's all they have left when the President's record is an abject failure. As I've

noted before, it's a risky strategy.

On today's "Meet the Press," Newt Gingrich actually did a very good job of pointing out the unbridled extremism of the Obama Democrats when it comes to abortion. From the show's transcript of an exchange between Gingrich and New York Times columnist Tom Friedman (emphasis added):

MR. GINGRICH: . . .[T]he Democratic Party plank on abortion is the most extreme plank in the United States. The president of United States voted three times to protect the right of doctors to kill babies who came out of abortion still alive. That plank says tax-paid abortion at any moment of-- of, meaning, partial birth abortion, that’s a 20 percent issue. The vast majority of women do not believe the taxpayers should pay to abort a child in the eighth or ninth month. Now why isn’t it shocking that the Democrats on the social issue of abortion have taken the most extreme position in this country and they couldn’t defend their position for a day if it was made clear and a vivid-- as vivid as all the effort is made to paint Republicans?

MR. FRIEDMAN: I’m a Planned Parenthood Democrat on-- on-- on the issue of-- of choice. And I think that that is where the country should be. That is where many, many women in this country are. And I’m glad there are people running for the presidency who will defend that position. Period. Paragraph. End it.

. . .

MR. GINGRICH: . . .[L]et me go back to Tom’s point, because I’m-- so-- so you think it’s acceptable to have a party committed to tax-paid abortion in the eighth and ninth month? And you think that’s a sustainable position in the United States. If the news media spent as much time on the extremism of the Democrats as they spend trying to attack us, you would-- they would not be able to adopt that plank this week.

MR. FRIEDMAN: Yeah, I-- I do believe that’s a defensible position but I also believe I’m-- I’m here as a journalist, I’ll let the Democratic Party defend it.

Note well: The Democratic platform calls for taxpayer funds should be used to fund abortions -- even in the eighth and ninth months of pregnancy. That includes partial birth abortion, and it includes babies who could live outside the womb. And as all of us know, the President voted against the Born Alive Infant Protection Act three times, as Gingrich points out. Indeed, his position was even more radically pro-abortion-rights than NARAL's (that's the National Abortion Right Action League).

You want extremism? All of THAT is extremism, and it shocks the conscience. One needn't be a pure pro-lifer (I believe in exceptions for rape, incest and life of the mother) to be absolutely appalled at the Democrat stance on abortion. Do we really want to live in a country where it's okay to kill an unborn baby at nine months, just because she happens to be a girl (now that's a "war on women"!) or for any other reason, or for none?

Look, this election shouldn't be about abortion. Our economic future is in peril, and it needs to be fixed. But if Democrats are going to demagogue abortion -- as they've tried to demagogue Medicare -- our pushback should be as strong.

Oh, and note Tom Friedman's responses. In his first, he refers to himself as a "Planned Parenthood Democrat" (a disgrace in itself). In his second, he claims to be there "as a journalist." Could've fooled me.