ABORTION EXTREMIST

I’m a typically conflicted libertarian-leaning Catholic on abortion, as regular readers will know. Personally opposed to all abortion but committed to maximizing human freedom in deeply contested moral areas, I can live with its being legal in the first trimester. But I try and respect both sides as far as I can. The one thing I can’t fathom, though, is the notion that one side is somehow more “extreme” than the other. I’ve heard several comments today from friends who see W’s suspension of overseas aid for groups that promote abortion as scary, divisive and extreme. Huh? Why is it more extreme than the previous policy that used tax-money to fund abortions abroad? The public is pretty evenly split, but somehow only the pro-lifers get called “out of the mainstream” by the media. But when Janet Reno came out and supported partial birth abortions, no hue and cry was uttered. Is it me or is there a double-standard here?