Answered prayers, as they say, can be very mixed blessings, as the feminists certainly know. They wanted outspoken women to come forth in politics, and they wanted women to exercise “choice.” Who knew that so many would be pro-life, low-tax, pro-defense women — South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, Keep America Safe co-founder Liz Cheney, among a great many others — and that the choices made by so many women would be to abort their own girls?

When it emerged, the concept of “choice” seemed a triumph of marketing, the way to appeal to the libertarian streak in the people, to neutralize the unpleasant fact of the issue with something that could be sold as a good.