The testy exchange between Republican presidential candidates Sam Brownback and Mitt Romney about their pro-life credentials during the Des Moines debate reeked of pro-life pettiness.
Brownback won 1st Pettiness Prize from my perspective as a convert to the cause after years of ambivalence about abortion.
The Star Tribune of Minneapolis-St. Paul, courtesy of the Washington Post, sums up the candidates' quibble here:
Brownback vs. RomneyThe sharpest exchange was sparked by the first question, when Stephanopoulos played a recording of an automated phone call by Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback attacking Romney's abortion-opposing credentials.
The call said, in part, that Romney's wife had contributed to Planned Parenthood. Asked whether he stands by the call, Brownback said, "I certainly do. There's one word that describes [the call], and it's 'truthful.' " A clearly agitated Romney said that "virtually nothing in that ad is true."
Still, film says it best in this video of the Brownback/Romney quarrel from ABC News. You'll find the bickering during the first half of the short video (before Rudy Giuliani offers his evasive pro-choice babble about reducing abortions and encouraging adoptions).
While I have the utmost admiration and gratitude for politicians and citizens who have long been pro-life, I cannot tolerate one-upsman(or woman)ship about who has the best pro-life credentials from either. For those who engage in such pettiness damage the movement by hurting it from within.
Anti-abortion types must fight for children's rights, not act like them claiming "Nah, nah, na, nah, nah, I'm more pro-life than you."
(c) 2007 Marybeth T. Hagan
Crossposting with http://www.mothermayibeborn.com
