Abortion on Demand?

Steven Taylor agrees with Oliver Willis that Tim Roemer’s anti-abortion position disqualifies him from being chair of the DNC. Taylor adds, though,

[T]he Democrats have a serious problem–there appears to be no reasonable restriction on abortion that the party will support–the most striking example being partial birth abortion, or whatever you want to call it. There is also the fact that Democrats tend to oppose fairly moderate reforms, such as waiting periods, parental notification or promotion of adoption. It is also clear that despite generic fulminations from Senators about “mainstream” nominees, that the main issue that blocked every one of Bush’s Appeals Court nominees last term was abortion.

Yep. Most Americans have a mushy, intellectually-inconsistent position on abortion that doesn’t coincide with the hard core partisans of either party. The Republicans, though, have the advantage because the status quo is precisely abortion on demand, at least before fetal viability. Being against partial birth abortion and in favor of waiting periods and parental notification is well within the mainstream; the opposite positions are not.

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