In this Washington Post column, he examines the efforts of House Republicans to provide the people coming for the annual "March for Life" something to "celebrate" - and he is not complimentary about what he saw. It starts with his very first paragraph:
There they go again. Given control of Congress and the chance to frame an economic agenda for the middle class, the first thing Republicans do is tie themselves in knots over . . . abortion and rape.
By now the outline and even many of the details of what happened are clear. House Republicans were going to move a bill that would ban abortions after 20 weeks on the grounds that after that point the fetus could feel pain - or so the advocates of the bill contended, even though, as Robinson notes later in the column,
I should note that there is no generally accepted scientific basis for the premise of the “Pain-Capable” bill. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has said there is no legitimate research supporting the idea that fetuses feel pain at 20 weeks.
Even had the bill been brought up in the Senate, it is hard to imagine getting 60 votes to overcome a Democratic filibuster, and the President had committed to veto the bill if it reached his desk. But "moderates" and Republican women in the House objected over the issue of exceptions to the ban, so the bill was pulled and instead we got an extension of the restrictions of federal funding for abortions which is still not going to become law.
Robinson at times can be very succinct in summarizing an issue, as he was in this sentence:
The whole thing was, in sum, your basic 360-degree fiasco.
Robinson provides a lot more:
- abortions are at historic lows, dropping 13% between 2002 and 2011
- only 1.4% of abortions take place after 20 weeks
- the requirement that for a rape exception to be allowed was leading Republicans back into the territory of Todd Akin's remarks about "legitimate rape."
There is a lot more in this column. Note for example this paragraph:
I understand that, for those who believe in their hearts that abortion is murder, there is an imperative to do something, anything, to stop it. Some people have similar moral passion about capital punishment or the thousands of lives lost each year to gun violence.
Robinson leaves it to the reader to mentally expand on that thought - of the lives that are lost to that kind of violence that the same Republicans are unwilling to allow actions to save those lives.
After noting how the "hooting and hollering" accomplish little except to fleece abortion opponents of campaign contributions, in his penultimate paragraph Robinson tries to remind the readers of the real issues facing this country:
People, we are in an economic recovery whose fruits are not reaching the middle class. We have a crucial need to address U.S. infrastructure and competitiveness. We face myriad challenges abroad, including Islamic terrorism and global warming.
Here I have to object somewhat - unless you are going to label those who use violence against people exercising a constitutionally protected right "Christian terrorism" then the fact that some who commit violence are Muslims does not make that terrorism Islamic - those committing the atrocities represent a tiny fraction of the more than 1 billion Muslims in the world, many of whose leaders have condemned their actions.
I do agree that the other issues in that paragraph are real, and should be the focus of Congressional activity.
One might argue that this no more political theater than is the President's proposals of changes to taxation that are dead on arrival in the House. Perhaps. But there is a difference - a majority of the American people support what the President is proposing. That is NOT true of the Republican actions on access to abortion.
My one quibble aside, I think Robinson nails the issue, and nails the House Republicans.
Earlier I noted his ability to be succinct in making a point.
In support of that, I offer his final paragraph:
If a renewal of the culture wars is your answer, Republicans, you totally misheard the question.