Tomorrow Virginia votes in its state legislative elections. Our friends at Bearing Drift notice the editors of the Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star characterizing those who oppose abortion as “government-hating nutzies”:
social conservatives have good reason to want [state Sen. Edd Houck] gone. As chairman of the Senate Education and Health Committee he has buried anti-abortion legislation, earning 100 percent ratings from NARAL and Planned Parenthood. But it is hard to see how many others share that sentiment, apart from government-hating nutzies.
Ah. They’re nuts and like Nazis! Glad to see they got the memo about the new tone.
Of course, the “Nutzy” population may be a bit larger than the editors think:
By an overwhelming 55 – 22 percent, Virginians support a new law requiring abortion clinics to be regulated like hospitals, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today. State health regulators are to vote Thursday on regulations implementing tougher abortion clinic standards that are popular even though by 50 – 41 percent Virginians say abortion should be legal in all or most cases. The Virginia Legislature, which gets a 48 – 34 percent approval rating, passed the law that abortion rights groups say is a back-door attempt to stop abortions in the state because most of the existing clinics cannot meet the structural requirements of the new law. But 50 percent of registered voters see the new law as a way to safeguard women’s health, while 33 percent see the law as unnecessary and an effort to put abortion clinics out of business. There is only a small gender gap on this question.
“There is strong support for the new abortion law among men and women. Opponents apparently have been unable to convince the electorate that this is an unwarranted back-door way to stop abortions,” said Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. “Even Democrats, by a plurality, support the measure.”
Houck opposed that measure.