At the other, legislators grappled with a bizarre bill in the U.S. House of Representatives clarifying for idiots that a breathing, moving newborn with a beating heart is, in fact, a human being. The bill is not expected to go to the Senate before legislators adjourn and, therefore, will die a natural death. They're probably correct, though one can imagine that babies intended for the Great Vacuum Beyond are grateful, nonetheless. Hey, one less thing. And so here we are, stuck somewhere between conception and viability, grappling with an issue of which most Americans are sick and even Republicans seem weary.
Abortion is here to stay, meanwhile, because no one's going to touch it.
Not Al Gore, certainly. He'll perform one himself if that's what it takes to get him elected. He has said he supports abortion in cases of rape or incest, thus separating himself from the rigid hard-right. He promised not to make abortion a litmus test for Supreme Court appointments. Abortion has been absent these many months because the debate, implicit in the unspoken, is over.