Editor’s note. There were lots of transmission problems on Friday, so I am resending the December 12 edition which received massive comment from those who did have a chance to read it. If you have any thoughts, send them to daveandrusko@gmail.com.

"Reproductive health is one of the most politically perilous issues any new administration has to deal with. But there's some good news on this front for President-elect Obama: He may face lower expectations from abortion-rights backers than some of his predecessors."
     Introduction to "Advocates Want Bush Abortion Policies Reversed," a piece by Julie Rovner that aired last night on NPR's "All Things Considered."

"What advocates were less eager to share with the public is the detailed roadmap included in the document for the changes in policy needed to improve reproductive health for women both here and abroad. Several advocates cited concerns that the administration would be criticized as doing the bidding of reproductive health community if it made use of the specific legal reasoning outlined in the document."

From Emily Douglas's blog entry yesterday on the pro-abortion website, Rhrealitycheck.org, alluding to a 55-page wish list submitted to the Obama transition team by an alliance of PPFA, NARAL, and about 50 other pro-abortion groups. Apparently, the coalition did not expect the Obama team to post their grab bag on Obama's http://change.gov website.

I know my first reaction should be anger. But I confess that because pro-abortionists' contempt for truth is matched only by the transparent insincerity of their cover stories, my first response is often a kind of stunned bemusement.

Nothing against Ms. Rovner. The narrative of her piece reflects the for public consumption mantra of the Abortion Establishment. Nothing here but us moderates eager to change the "tone" of the abortion debate and quite willing, perhaps, not to "press for more sweeping changes that would take legislative action by Congress," as Rovner described it.

Wow, talk about hands across the water. All the likes of PPFA and NARAL (supposedly) want is, say, an executive order ending the Mexico City policy. (For newcomers, this is an executive order that denies federal "family planning" funds to private organizations that promote abortion in foreign nations.)

That's the public face of the usual suspects. What did they say in the aforementioned 55-page memo which, according to Douglas, they hadn't intended "to go public"?

They begin by asking for the sky, the moon, and the stars in the first 100 days. Then, over the next 1,300 days, they ask for the solar system, the galaxy, the universe, and, for good measure, any parallel universes that might exist. (Before I forget, helpful as ever, they even provided specific suggested language for presidential memorandums and the like.)

Striving, as they are, for moderation, all they want (to give just a sampling) is everything from the previously mentioned executive order, to funding the United Nations Population Fund (which has been an aider and an abettor of China's forced abortion and involuntarily sterilization policies), to health care "reform" that weaves abortion into every nook and cranny of the system, to the obliteration of those pesky conscience clauses, to an assurance that all evidence demonstrating abortion's aftershocks on women is suppressed (this is called "Reestablish[ing] a standard of excellence for federal appointees"), to the nomination of exclusively pro-abortion judges and justices, payment for abortions of all Medicaid-eligible women, and an all-purpose "Improve Access to Abortion Care," which includes passing the egregiously mis-labeled "Freedom of Choice Act" (FOCA), which is better described as the "Federal No-Limits-On-Abortion" bill and/or the "Freedom for Partial-Birth Abortionists Act."

How much more "moderate" can you get than this?

If you'd like to read and then comment on the recommendations of the Abortion Establishment to its favorite son, go to http://change.gov/open_government/entry/advancing_reproductive_rights_and_health_in_a_new_administration.

Send your comments to daveandrusko@gmail.com