I've seen a lot of very misinformed bitching and moaning about Hillary's comments in the diaries today, and to all of you I have just one thing to say: tough shit.
Hillary's proposal- that we seek common ground on abortion by targeting "unwanted pregnancies" is refreshing and common sense. But most importantly, it is simply progressive.
Let me say, straight up, that I am a solidly pro-choice Howard Dean Democrat (wow- just like most everyone else on the blog). I live in the "Reality-based" community and I seek solutions to problems rather than sticking to rigid ideology.
That being said, I implore just one person in this community to try and tell me that abortion is a good thing. Sure it is arguably better than the tragedy of a poor single mother's ruined life, but it is still tragic, even if you don't believe that life begins at conception (which I don't). No matter how pro-choice you are, the bottom line is we all want to reduce the numbers of abortions.
Why is Hillary's proposal not only politically expedient, but amazingly progressive? Well, there is this one cliche that comes to mind- there's more than one way to skin a cat.
Sure we could arguably reduce abortion by making it illegal (as the crazy fundies would have us do), but we could also rationally realize that abortion is the symptom of a greater problem: unwanted pregancies. As a matter of fact, the number of abortions is directly proportional to the number of unwanted pregnecies. So, by proactively reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies we can keep the procedure legal AND cut down the number of abortions.
One of the hallmark features of ANY progressives is the ability to see a great, common sense solution even when it seems to be an inherently "conservative" measure. If you can't swallow this pill and embrace a common-sense solution to the vitriolic abortion issue which is KILLING this party, then fuck you and the Donkey you rode in on.