Caterwauling is damaging pro-lifers

The harsh criticism and rejection of Judge Sandra O’Connor as nominee t.o the Supreme Court by Rightt.o-Life leaders and the Moral Majority is pecksniffery at it.s worst. It is also unjust. Some of these Jacobins have become first-st.one throwers and are damaging the Right-to-Life movement. Peter Gemma, a leading Pro-Life politician, but not necessarily a prolife thinker, is absurd when he calls O’Connor “a hard-core pro-abortion proponent.” The Rev. Jerry Falwell, likewise, when he claims she “is opposed t.o attempt.s t.o curb the biological holocaust”. that has caused the death of 10 million babies since 1973. My pro-life reputation dates t.o 1973 when I wrote “The Abortion Culture” for Newsweek, so I take no back seat. I argued that the chore is t.o explain what a grisly matter abortion is, how it diminishes respect for human life, and can corrode a society. I always was against people crying “murder,” although I never opposed showing those telling, honest phot.os of the fetus. In the years since, the pro-life movement has grown and become strong. Inevitably, its leaders became obsessed with political power, highspeed computer mailings, “hit” list.s and a narrowness which could only please severe Calvinist.s, Madame Defarge or Menachem Begin. Like the cost-benefit-analysis martinet.s that they should scorn, some pro-life zealots pick over Judge. O’Connor’s “record” and condemn her. President Reagan says that he has discussed the abortion question with Judge O’Connor, and