I've been feeling like a bit of a chump the last couple of days, ever since the abortion doctor was gunned down as he attended church. I spend a lot of time (too much, probably) in this space attacking the talk-show morons for their various assaults on good sense and decency. But it occurs to me now that I have heard Bill O'Reilly launch several verbal sallies against the doctor without thinking much about it.
I'm a pro-choice guy, mostly because I don't trust the government to make these kinds of decisions, but it seemed reasonable enough to me to believe, as O'Reilly insisted, that there probably really was some greedy doctor in Kansas cranking out abortions as fast he could for the sake of the bottom line.
Now the situation looks much more complicated. If you read Andrew Sullivan, you have heard from a number of the doctor's customers who regard him as a hero or saint for helping them through heart-rendingly difficult decisions about what to do with a pregnancy gone hideously wrong.
You can still oppose all abortions and realize that these situations are much more nuanced and difficult than talk radio ever lets on. I knew that. I even listen especially for that. Then I got sucked in anyway, damn it.
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For the blow by blow on O'Reilly's systematic assault on George Tiller, which finally resulting in the intended result this week, see http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2009/05/31/tiller/.
These people aren't pro-life. They're pro-hate.
O'Reilly defended himself the last time I saw him on Letterman by saying 'It's all an act. It's just an act.' Nice act, Bill. Time to get a new one.
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