Here’s David A. Patten writing at American Thinker taking the National Review editors to school — something you would think wouldn’t need to be done:
The editors of the National Review are advising Marco Rubio to revise his pro-life position to make an exception for rape and incest. They reason that failure to allow such an exception marks him as an extremist and only serves to alienate a public that may be attracted to other aspects of the pro-life platform such as opposition to late-term abortion and taxpayer funding of abortion.
This is their advice to Rubio and other pro-life presidential candidates:
What then should a candidate say if he believes that in an ideal world, unborn children conceived in rape should be protected? Asked about abortion in the case of rape, the first thing that candidate should do is to express sympathy for the woman who was brutalized and put in a terrible position. It would be perfectly honorable for that candidate to say next that restricting abortion in that case is not part of his agenda — because in no serious sense is it part of any Republican’s agenda; and to say that by the end of his presidency abortion will be just as available in cases of rape as it is today — because that is true.
Senator Rubio would be well-advised to ignore the second half of this counsel.
To begin with, it is rarely wise to allow political expedience, rather than principle, to determine one’s stance on an ethical question of fundamental importance. If you believe the answer to this question is yes, then have the courage of your convictions to say so. Senator Rubio, reasonably enough, believes we are talking about living human beings; these unborn children are not capital to be traded away for a bump in the polls. If standing up for them is unpopular and makes it harder for him to win, so be it.
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It also needs to be said that the National Review’s very suggestion that Rubio ought to moderate his stance on abortion is oddly tin-eared. The conservative movement clearly is frustrated with the Republican Party at the moment. Republican politicians seem to constantly be retreating and do not seem to fight hard enough on issues that matter. It is one thing to compromise when you are sitting at the table hashing out the actual legislation and fighting tooth and nail for every last vote. But it is foolish to water down one’s starting position before the fight begins.
Read more: American Thinker
Image credit: www.marcorubio.com.
