In the Washington press corps, we often speak of special interests, behind-the-scenes power brokers, and third rails. What reporters don’t do a good enough job explaining: The abortion lobby is perhaps the single most powerful special interest on the Left half of Washington.
The Left half of Washington currently doesn’t hold power in Congress or in Washington, but it controls one of our two major parties and it dominates the media. That means these powerful institutions are in the thrall of Planned Parenthood, NARAL, and the rest of the industry.
Kevin Williamson’s recent firing from the Atlantic is the latest example.
Williamson believes that abortion is homicide and should be illegal. He has gone further and has said that if it became illegal, he believes death by hanging would be a proper punishment. This is obviously an extreme view, and an upsetting one. But holding extreme and upsetting views usually does not preclude a skilled writer from also holding a commentary job at a mainstream publication.
Had Williamson written that all members of Hamas deserve to be beheaded, do we think he would have been fired? If he written that abortion should be legal after birth if the baby is disabled, do we think he would have been fired? Had he written that we should nuke Pyongyang, innocents be damned, do we think he would have been fired? Had he supported eugenic abortion of the mentally disabled, do we think he would have been fired? Had he said he didn’t see the cops and firemen killed on Sept. 11 as humans but as “menaces,” do we think he would have been fired? Had he defended Stalin’s gulags, do you think he would have been fired?
No. None of those extreme and startling and immoral positions would have gotten him fired. But if you do something to earn a fatwa from the abortion lobby, you’d better hope you don’t need any good graces from any institution left of No Labels.
Democrats will bend on almost anything — they nominate Wall Street-loving, war-supporting candidates for president, they will go along with tax hikes and spending cuts — but they will not bend on abortion. During the government shutdown debates in 2011, the only place they wouldn’t bend was Planned Parenthood funding.
For one thing, their fundraising apparatus is built around the abortion lobby.
And it’s the same in the left-leaning media. Can you name a mainstream reporter or editor who is pro-life? Remember when Susan G. Komen decided they would partner with someone besides Planned Parenthood, the unprecedented storm of media fury that came down?
This is sacred turf on the Left. The abortion lobby is that which one must not cross.
