By Dave Andrusko

A lot of disparate thoughts raced through my mind last night as I watched portions of the second day of the Democratic National Convention. Particularly when PPFA President Cecile Richards (who was in the special box reserved for the likes of Bill Clinton) got up to speak.

She proudly said of the party’s presidential nominee, Hillary Clinton “will always stand up for Roe v. Wade and the right of every woman to access a full range of reproductive health care, including abortion, no matter her economic status.” The latter is code for demolishing the Hyde Amendment, a.k.a. multiplying the body count.

As we’ve talked about numerous times already, the Democrats and their nominee are a study in abortion extremism. In the way the party has assimilated the most extreme abortion agenda, it made me think of Katha Pollitt’s book, “Pro: Reclaiming Abortion Rights.”

The title notwithstanding, Pollitt’s book does not deliver a breakthrough, so to speak, a new way of defending the indefensible. But that was not important if you read the 100% sympathetic reviews that appeared in the usual places (Slate, the New York Times, Salon, etc., etc.), although you keep hearing notions that the public is more open to an abortion absolutism embodied in Pollitt’s book and personified by Hillary Clinton.

Writing for Slate.com, Hanna Rosin really liked “Pro: Reclaiming Abortion Rights.”There are a few quibbles, but that is a subject for another time.

First and foremost, Pollitt reaffirms Rosen’s own condescending prejudices. For instance, it’s so 1950ish to think there could possibly be anything wrong about abortion, anything the tiniest bit problematic.

For example, why can’t the movie “Obvious Child” make a joke out of the lead character obliterating her unborn child? “We shouldn’t need a book explaining why abortion rights are important,” Rosin writes. “We should be over that by now.”

So why aren’t we collectively “over that” by now? You guessed it: us.

“The reason we’re not, according to Pollitt, is that we have all essentially been brainwashed by a small minority of pro-life activists.”

Before I go any further, it is always instructive to remember how contemptuous pro-abortionists are not just of us—what else would you expect?—but of the American public. They are all fools, dolts who can be manipulated by a handful of anti-abortion whackos.

By the way, if you are Rosin, you would think you’d be more careful talking about “brainwashing.” It was her side that dredged up the ridiculous, reason-free “war on women” meme which was as tedious as it was condescending.

Anyway, back to the review.

Can anyone read the following paragraph (pro, con, or have no opinion on abortion) and not smile?

“Pollitt aims her book at the ‘muddled middle’ who have been infected by the awfulization [of abortion] without thinking about it that much. To win them back she’s crafted a lengthy Socratic response dissecting the contradictions on the pro-life side.”

“Socratic”? Please.

Note who the muddled (or “mushy”) middle is, besides being “infected” (gosh, now we’re reduced to spreading viruses?).

In fact, as polling data going back decades reveals, it refers to all those Americans who are told they are “pro-choice” when, in fact, they oppose the reasons for which 90%+ of all abortions are performed.

Rosin/Pollitt might concede the numbers (not my conclusion, of course), but counter that’s just they haven’t had the benefit of reading Ms. Socrates’ wisdom.

Just one other point (there are at least four or five more worth considering but…). For reasons that make sense only to the hard-core pro-abortionist, Pollitt believes (Rosin writes) that the “moral high ground is in reclaiming the right to have an abortion, regardless of the circumstances.”

None of this “hard case” nonsense for the abortion on demand without apology crowd. That simply breeds defensiveness, an invitation to defeat.

So, Pollitt/Rosin and their ilk believe that the way to the American public’s heart is through….abortions at any stage of gestation, for any reason, or none, paid for by you and me. Honestly, they really do believe they’ve stumbled on the key that will unlock the mystery of why they haven’t secured abortion-on-demand.

Here’s the distilled essence of philosophy of the absolutist times ten pro-abortionist:

“The fog of regret has meant no one is able to confidently defend or even cleanly describe what’s actually going on: Three in 10 American women have abortions by the time they hit menopause. They are not generally victims of rape or incest, or in any pitiable situation from which they need to be rescued. They are making a reasonable and even admirable decision that they can’t raise a child at the moment. Is that so hard to say? As Pollitt puts it, ‘This is not the right time for me’ should be reason enough. And saying that aloud would help push back against the lingering notion that it’s unnatural for a woman to choose herself over others.”

Rosin proudly tells us between her second and third (living) children, she aborted a baby. In so doing, clearly she pushed back “against the lingering notion that it’s unnatural for a woman to choose herself over others.”

Did she have post-abortion regret? Naw, although “Part of me thinks the shadow aborted child stayed with me and created a space for the last one to be born.” But don’t draw any of the wrong conclusions.

Rosin was too busy working and caring for her two children to even think about the one she didn’t have time for.

Here is Rosin’s conclusion, which is as chilling as it is sad:

“Like Pollitt said about the pro-lifers, I recognize that the fetus and the mother have a complicated relationship without being able to fully articulate what that is. The aborted fetus hung around as a concept, nothing at all like the living children I already had. Having an abortion left me with a sense of what a great power it is to be able to give life but also a sense that I can trust myself to use it carefully.”

Rosin’s “complicated relationship” was that she and her husband brought that child into existence but—trusting in her own wisdom—chose not to give him or her life (birth).

Sorry, kid, your timing was off.

It reminds me of the woman we once wrote about who posted a letter on Reddit to the child she was about to abort:

“I promise I will see you again, and next time, you can call me Mom.”