Clinton & Kerry ... put up or shut up!

Our pickets must be working. That is my only explanation why Hillary Clinton and John Kerry are treating pro-lifers nicer these days. It couldn't be that they figure they have no choice if they want get anywhere on the national political front.

The two – along with other significant Democrat abortion zealots like Nancy Pelosi and Howard Dean – have been ticking off their pimps lately by making overtures to pro-lifers.

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(By "overtures," I mean they have stopped spitting and hissing when speaking publicly about us.)

Recent election cycles have demonstrated a pro-life trend, but 2004 results forced Democrat leaders to face the fact that their two most prominent lobby groups – pro-aborts and homosexuals – neither replicate tomorrow's little Democrats nor attract today's mainstream voters. Hence, their downward spiral.

At times like this, simply ambitious politicians move to the middle, poising between factions. They usually end up looking impotent and sounding stupid.

Smart politicians not only move to the middle, but then try to create the need for a mediator and fill that void.

Kerry is one of the simply ambitious politicians. His attempts to straddle the abortion issue have been idiotic. We all know his infamous "I oppose abortion, personally" campaign line, said about the time he was catching a plane to the Capitol to vote against Laci and Connor's Law.

More recently on "Meet the Press" he babbled, "The discussion is not about being pro-abortion. The discussion is about how you truly value life. Valuing life is also valuing choice. Valuing life is the exception for the life of a mother or rape or incest." No editorial comment needed.

Clinton is a smart politician. Note the remarkable difference between the speech she gave last year on the 31st anniversary of Roe v. Wade and the speech she gave this year.

Last year, as keynote speaker for the annual NARAL celebration, Clinton warned of the "insidious and relentless attacks" by pro-lifers to overturn Roe v. Wade. She cautioned about our "tactics" that sneakily "cannot be done quickly and in the light of day." She made us sound like stealth terrorists:

Our opponents are patient. They are going to do it slowly, quietly, one justice at a time, one legal battle at a time, one state at a time ... Slowly, methodically, quietly, they have begun chipping away at the reproductive rights of women. And if those rights fall, other rights will follow. Their goal is to supplant modern society with a society that fits into their narrow world view ... It's such a quiet assault ...

Read the speech. It will make you afraid of yourself.

This year, speaking to the New York State Family Planning Providers on Jan. 24, Clinton was all about reconciliation. She said she wanted to "find common ground with people on the other side of this debate" and that "it's important that family-planning advocates reach out to those who may not agree with us on everything to try to find common ground."

OK, enough.

For three months now, pro-abort politicians have been trying to figure out how to charm pro-lifers just enough to disarm them. Here's the deal. Weaving and dodging won't work. Nor will sweet talk.

Here's what will work: Put up or shut up.

There are two easily accessible olive branches Sens. Clinton and Kerry can extend that we'll take.

Two pro-life bills were recently introduced in the Senate, both reasonable and both supported by a majority of the American public.

S-51, the Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act, is a no-brainer "pro-choice" bill. It would empower an abortion-minded mother to choose whether or not her pre-born baby would receive pain relief before being dismembered and killed. A November 2004 Wirthlin nationwide poll gave a 75-18 percent margin in favor of such legislation.

S-8, the Child Custody Protection Act, would make it a criminal offense for anyone other than a parent to transport a minor across state lines to abort, if the minor's home state has a parental involvement law. A 2003 CNN-USA Today-Gallup nationwide poll gave a 73-18 percent margin in favor of such legislation.

S-51 has 34 Senate co-sponsors so far, and S-8 has 20. But none of those listed are named either Clinton or Kerry.

Perhaps "Personally Pro-life" Kerry and "Common Ground" Clinton didn't know about these bills because they were too busy building bridges. Well, now they know, because I have faxed my column to their offices.

We're waiting.