Democrats Don't Want "Common Ground" on Abortion

Peter Wallsten and Robin Abcarian, at the Los Angeles Times, take George Tiller's murder as an opportunity to blame conservatives for "a massive setback" on reaching an abortion compromise:

In calling last month for "common ground" on abortion, President Obama launched his search for an unlikely political sweet spot -- a popular stance on an issue that has long been dominated by extremes.

But the slaying Sunday of Kansas abortion doctor George Tiller has raised the level of mistrust between the very factions that the White House has been trying to bring together.

The administration had already been struggling to soothe simmering tensions. Two days before Obama delivered his call for common ground at Notre Dame, the White House hosted a meeting of activists on both sides, and a subtle but telling disagreement over semantics arose between an Obama aide and a leading abortion foe. Now some activists say they have yet to see room for compromise.

Tiller's death is a "massive setback" in the search for common ground, said Cristina Page, a New York City author and abortion rights advocate. "It's sort of like having a family member murdered and then being asked to make nice with the assassin's family. It's unnatural."

What's really unnaturally, actually, is how pro-choice groups are welcoming Tiller's murder as the devil's kiss for their movement. The kllling gives them a darkly supernatural sense of resurgence in support of baby killings. Frankly, we could have been having this debate all year, on the merits. Instead, it's taken a diabolical gift of dread to bring the pro-choice movement back from outside the fringes of acceptable political discourse. As I noted earlier, "In truth, leftists have turned Tiller's death into a one-way superhighway to baby-killing."

Pro-choicers have eager enablers in the press, as well. Check out McClatchy's piece this morning, "Operation Rescue adviser helped Tiller suspect track doctor's court dates" (via Memeorandum).

Related: See Ken Blackwell on the left's hypocrisy, "The Blood Libel of the New York Times":

There have been murders of abortionists -- this weekend’s killing in Wichita being the most recent. There have been bombers of gay bars. Whenever such crimes have occurred, every leader of a religious conservative organization -- without exception -- has denounced the crimes. Paul Hill went to Florida’s electric chair for murdering an abortionist. There was no voice of sympathy raised for him. Nor should there have been. Eric Robert Rudolph sits in federal prison for bombing an abortion facility and a gay bar. There are no appeals for clemency for him. Nor should there be.

The same cannot be said of the liberal elites. Bombers Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn are lionized by liberals -- and they host future presidents in their home. They remain unrepentant for their crimes.

National Review also writes on the partisan reaction, indicating why renunciation of violence on the pro-life side is essential, "Murder Most Foul":

Almost everyone who calls himself a pro-lifer has condemned Roeder’s evil. All pro-lifers should make it clear that those who take up the gun, or tolerate it, have no place in their movement. Our only weapons should be persuasion, law, and prayer.

As we can see, in contrast to the radical abortion lobby, conservatives are taking the high ground in the aftermath of Tiller's death