Charles Camosy is a pro-lifer who is appalled by the nearly uniform opposition of Democrats to the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act. But he’s also appalled by the Republicans, because the bill’s defeat “was precisely the result the Republicans were looking for.”
“If they had been serious about passing the bill, they would have worked with moderate Democrats to add amendments that would support women in difficult circumstances,” he argues. I don’t know that I ever saw any Democrats express opposition to the bill on the ground that it failed to provide such help or suggest that they were open to the bill with such an amendment. I saw a lot of Democrats express opposition to the bill in principle.
Camosy continues, “Instead, the GOP gave even moderately pro-choice Democrats no reason to defy their own party’s leadership.” I can think of two reasons Republicans gave for moderately pro-choice Democrats to vote for the bill. One is that voting for it would help these Democrats to demonstrate that they are indeed only moderately pro-choice rather than fanatically so. A second, more important reason is that it is the natural vote for them to cast if they are what they say they are. Offering legal protection for infants ought, that is, to have been reason enough.
To the extent Republicans were trying to bait Democrats into casting a vote that made the latter look extreme, the Democrats had an easy way to counter the strategy: Vote for the bill. I wish they had. It’s entirely appropriate to try to make them pay a political price for making the wrong choice.