Exhibit A: All Roads in American Politics Circle Back to Abortion

Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL ProChoice America, told Politics Daily's Jill Lawrence, "There's elections coming up in 2010. We will know who stood with us and who stood against us. . . . It's a new day and I'm here to tell you we're going to hold those accountable who voted against us." Lawrence writes that "this would be a departure. According to Keenan, her group has supported a challenger in a Democratic primary only once.'' Of course it's a departure; only recently has there been anyone to primary, because pro-life candidates couldn't get arrested without the approval – and because this is America, the cash – of the abortion-rights lobby.

Talk about forest-for-the-trees thinking; without the support of those pro-life Democrats that activists are so eager to throw out the window, there would be no bill, period. Which is apparently fine with the dozens of House Democrats – 40 so far – who have signed a letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi vowing to vote down any final bill that contains the abortion restrictions laid out in the Stupak Amendment that passed in the House. We are about to find out whether the abortion-rights lobby, and the members of Congress who are supported by it and vice versa, are more interested in expanding coverage or preserving political power.