As the Obama administration and Congress ponder their responses to the slaughter in Newtown, Connecticut, one of the central tensions in the American system of government is once again coming to the fore. That is, the freedoms enshrined in our Constitution's Bill of Rights are neither absolute nor in harmony with each other. For example, […]

When a federal judge ruled in August that Texas can withhold millions of dollars from Planned Parenthood and other family planning clinics, Governor Rick Perry proclaimed it a "win for Texas women." As it turns out, Perry's crusade against Planned Parenthood isn't a win for either the women of Texas or the budget of the […]

Appearing on Fox News Sunday morning, Arizona Senator John McCain urged his Republican Party to leave the abortion issue "alone." Given the drubbing among women voters the GOP endured thanks in part to anti-abortion extremists like Todd Akin and Richard Mourdock, McCain's fear is well-founded. Well-founded and very personal. After all, the same John McCain […]

The cruel and unnecessary death last month of Savita Halappanavar, the 31 year-old dentist denied a life-saving abortion, is rightly prompting soul-searching in Ireland. But those in the United States whose business is saving souls would do well to join them. After all, with their "human life amendment," draconian clinic regulations, "personhood" initiatives, heartbeat bills […]

For the better part of a year, Mitt Romney has been frantically trying to narrow his persistent gap with President Obama among women voters. (In recent polling, Romney's disadvantage remains in the range of 8 to 13 points.) As a show of his commitment, Romney announced in March that his wife Ann "reports to me […]

When Rush Limbaugh slandered Sandra Fluke as a "slut" back in March, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney said only, "It's not the language I would have used." But when it comes to Limbaugh's repeated slurs of the first African-American President of the United States as a "little boy" and a "man-child," that's pretty much the […]

If for nothing else, you have to give the 2008 and 2012 GOP tickets for getting their lines straight. On Thursday, John McCain rejoined Mitt Romney in support of embattled Indiana Republican Senate hopeful Richard Mourdock. That McCain would come around after accepting Mourdock's "apology" for proclaiming rape-induced pregnancies gifts from God should come as […]

One week after Mitt Romney comically claimed "There's no legislation with regards to abortion that I'm familiar with that would become part of my agenda," the Romney campaign began airing a new ad whitewashing his past positions and his party's extremist present on the issue. After all, Romney's latest cynical play for women voters doesn't […]

Mitt Romney's history on abortion reads like the Kama Sutra: it contains almost every position imaginable. Now, the man GOP strategist and former Romney adviser Michael Murphy in 2005 called "a pro-life Mormon faking it as a pro-choice friendly" is at it again. In a meeting with the Des Moines Register editorial board, Romney declared, […]

The United States Constitution has many timeless and powerful words. "God" just doesn't happen to be one of them. Our Founding Fathers did included freedom of religion, the establishment clause and a prohibition on religious tests for office. (Memo to Mitt Romney: that's why so many people consider your past statements about keeping Muslim Americans […]