Just When You Least Expect It

I've noticed two things about the abortion debate.

First: We're winning. More and more people identify as pro-life, more and more people report that they support legal restrictions on abortion, and more and more young people are pro-life.

Second (and counter-intuitively, considering the first point), the pro-life side doesn't usually drive the debate. Whenever abortion percolates to the top of our national discussions, it's most often because of something that the pro-abort side has said or done.

For example, what preceded the recent House vote to de-fund Planned Parenthood? A series of videos were released by LiveAction showing the eagerness of Planned Parenthood employees to provide their (government-funded) services to pimps running rings of (fictitious, as it turned out) illegal immigrant underage sex slaves.

This week the blogosphere is all over the recent post at the Wonkette blog that demonstrates liberals' visceral hatred of Trig Palin, the Down Syndrome baby of former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. Due to pre-natal testing, 90% of Down Syndrome babies are aborted in a fit of American Lebensunwertes Leben. Of course, liberals hate little Trig, who turned 3 this week, because his existence stands as a rebuke to their bankrupt philosophy and as a testament to the dignity and sanctity of human life. Such a famous Down Syndrome child provides unacceptably counter-cultural example of selflessness. Liberals believe that Trig should have been aborted, and they could not care less about anyone's "choice" in the matter. And a large number of people who last week were emphasizing the importance of fiscal policy in choosing our next president are now discussing how vile the pro-abortion tendencies of the left really are.

As you look back, it's the same story. What were the big abortion-related stories in 2008, during the last presidential campaigns? There were two: Barack Obama said that the question of when a baby gets human rights was "above my pay grade". And in a press conference, Obama said that if his girls, having reached their teen years, were to "make a mistake," that he wouldn't want them to be "punished with a baby."

So what do you think? What will the pro-aborts do next to draw unwanted and embarrassing attention to themselves?