THERE’S A STRONG ELEMENT of wishful thinking in the idea that Bill Clinton is an unprincipled poll surfer; he was brought around on welfare reform, some conservatives argue, and he can probably be brought around on most anything else. This may be a misreading of the president, especially on the subject of late abortions. He has taken a very lonely stand in their favor — a stand for the right to extract a near-term fetus. That positions him at the fringe of the issue — three-quarters of Americans oppose the practice. It also makes him, whether he likes it or not, a political ally of people like Colorado abortionist Warren Hern, whose worldview will probably strike most Americans as every bit as unsettling as David Duke’s.
Dr. Hern, by design or otherwise, is not very well known in policy circles. His name did pop up just before the election when he engaged in a remarkable exchange with pro-choice Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen. Cohen, who had initially supported the availability of late abortions, later wrote a column confessing a grave unease. “Late-term abortions once seemed to be the choice of women who, really, had no other choice,” Cohen concluded. “The facts now are different. If that’s the case, then so should be the law.”
