Abortion Rights: High Price for Reform

Stupak supporters need to shut up and take one for the team, says Katha Pollitt over at The Nation. The columnist takes offense to The Daily Beast's Peter Beinart, who, among others, wrote last week that abortion had to be sacrificed for the sake of the Democratic Party's future. The reason President Obama is in the White House, Pollitt claims, is not because of conservative Democrats like Stupak or religious right-wingers, but rather pro-choicers. Pollitt takes aim at pro-choice groups, too, for failing to organize in advance to make sure abortion would be covered. As for those concerned about the budget: Rather than jettison abortion, why not cut funding for prostate cancer, Viagra, or other "male-exclusive stuff"? "Time for the theocrats and male chauvinists to give something up for the greater good—to say nothing of the 20 pro-choicers, all men, who supported Stupak out of sheer careerism. After all, if it weren't for pro-choicers, there wouldn't be much of a team for them to play on."