The New York Times today splashes a story headlined “Senator Clinton Speaks of ‘Common Ground’ on Abortion.”

Obviously there’s a lot of political posturing going on here, but one thing really jumped out at me. She said (according to Drudge’s quote) that abortion is a:

“sad, even tragic choice to many, many women.”

Now tell me. Why is it tragic? If it’s not a child, but a choice, why is it tragic? If it’s just a lump of tissue, why is it tragic? In fact, why is it even sad?

Here is another quote from Hillary, 10/8/2002.

I’ve met women who faced this heart-wrenching decision toward the end of a pregnancy. Of course it’s a horrible procedure. No one would argue with that

What is so horrible about it? Ted Kennedy reminds us that it’s just a

“personal and private reproductive decision.”

Kerry:

“I believe that choice is a woman’s choice. It’s between a woman, God and her doctor.”

Or, the most amazing yet, from Planned Parenthood attorney Beth Parker (via Dawn Patrol):

Most [cases] involved a patient who objects or didn’t even know police had taken the fetus, which Parker contends is part of the woman’s medical records [Emphasis mine]

If it’s just “tissue” or “medical records” or “private” then why would Hillary Clinton call it “sad”, “tragic”, “heart wrenching” and “horrible”… ?

And I can’t resist adding this final note of wisdom, from Ronald Reagan, as quoted in the NYT on 9/22/1980:

I’ve noticed that everybody that is for abortion has already been born.

UPDATE: Michelle Malkin makes some interesting points about the statistics that Hillary used in this speech.

UPDATE 2: Scott Ott hilariously weighs in:

“I’m Pro-Chife,” she announced to the stunned crowd. “Being pro-chife means you support a woman’s right to end the life of a fetus that will never exist because the government will prevent the pregnancy.”

UPDATE 3: A reader pointed out some of the Google Ads that this blog entry has generated via content matching… check ‘em out. :-D

UPDATE 4: Ace of Spades weighs in with:

I don’t understand these politicians who take the “make abortions legal but rare” stance on the issue. That seems like a vain attempt to get on both sides of the issue. To me there are no such gray areas in this issue. Either you’re for abortions, or you’re against them. Either you believe that an abortion ends a life or you believe that it is no more than a procedure to remove some excess tissue from a woman’s body.