A quick word about an e-mail that is circulating today in some right-wing circles.

The Republican National Coalition for Life sent out their “weekly e-mail newsletter today about that stem-cell/cloning fight in Massachusetts I might have mentioned once or twice in these parts.

They are absolutely right to say, as they do in their headline, that “Massachusetts Governor Defends Some Human Embryos–Not Others.” It is factually true. But…right now the statehouse in the Bay State is poised to legalize cloning embryos–so a whole lot more than embryos will be lost if Romney’s opponents win, as the Boston mood suggests they will.

This current fight in Massachusetts is not a) about a Romney presidential bid (it will certainly give him creds of some sort–or not–on a national stage depending on the outcome, but that’s not a reason to attack him while he’s fighting at least part of your fight) or b) about his abortion record. It’s about at least putting an obstacle in the way of some radical and unethical research. Kill the bill (which has a huge emotional advantage), join Romney in at least that, or the whole battle in Massachusetts is lost, and the dominoes continue to fall (there is no federal ban, and Congress isn’t itching to act—though they should, in my humble opinion). I am not embracing Romney’s whole approach (as I’ve made clear), nor would I expect the RNC Coalition for Life to (they shouldn’t, of course), but</I he is more friend than foe on this (and one in Massachusetts! for that matter). As a New Yorker who sees lawmakers here anxious to tread into the same kind of research next, I’m increasingly nervous. And I don’t think alerts like the one that went out today help any.