Abortions for me, not for thee

WashingtonPost.com Rep. Tim Murphy wants abortion to be made illegal except in cases of “rape, incest, the life of the mother, and...Tim Murphy,” said Molly Roberts. The pro-life Pennsylvania Republican resigned last week after revelations that he’d asked his mistress to have an abortion when she thought she was pregnant earlier this year. That’s the “dictionary definition of hypocrisy,” but Murphy probably really did think he was against abortion until an unwanted pregnancy threatened his marriage, his political career, and his plans for his future. The same was true of several other pro-life public officials who sought abortions for mistresses, wives, and teen daughters. Why the discrepancy between their public and private selves? You don’t know what you’d do if you had an unwanted pregnancy until you have one. Then many people convince themselves that their situation is “different.” Some women have told sociologists they are pro-life “as they wait in an exam room to terminate a pregnancy,” because, well, they’re not like the bad women who have them for no good reason. Women who choose an abortion do so because they feel that carrying the pregnancy to term would ruin their lives. Perhaps Tim Murphy can empathize with that feeling now.