It was pro-abortion President Bill Clinton who first coined the term “safe, legal, and rare” in the early 1990s to describe his supposedly moderate view on abortion.

The phrase served Clinton well during the years-long partial birth abortion debate, making him sound reasonable even as he vetoed a ban against the heinous procedure twice. The conflicted masses liked it as well.

But abortion zealots got stuck on that word “rare.” As proponent Jessica Valenti wrote in The Guardian last year:

by Kelli

In countries where abortion is currently illegal, abortion advocates tend to exploit the “hard cases” (rape, incest, life of the mother) to use as weapons in their battle to liberalize abortion law.

The “women’s health” movement’s end goal isn’t really the betterment of women in general – it’s the removal of all roadblocks to abortion. And countries who resist the worldwide death march are often under immense international pressure to change their stance on the sanctity of human life.

Case in point: El Salvador, where, as Fox News reports, “girls aged 10 to 19 account[ed] for nearly a third of all pregnancies in the country last year.”

Read that again. Ages 10 to 19.

Jodi Jacobson is editor-in-chief of RH Reality Check, a pro-abortion website dedicated “to safeguard…  sexual and reproductive health and rights against false attacks and misinformation.”

Jacobson has stated it is “profoundly disrespectful” to oppose late-term abortions, which she defines as “at or after 24 weeks or in the third trimester.”

Jacobson has described those who kill babies in the third trimester as “committed, ethical, moral medical professional[s].” She said pro-lifers were “lunatics” to call late-term abortionist George Tiller a “mass murderer” – himself a subsequent victim of murder. Rather, Jacobson maintained, Tiller was a “heroic, kind, compassionate, professional.” 

All she’s doing with this parsing is trying to walk the line between signaling to casual Texas voters that she’s kinda sorta socially conservative while reassuring abortion warriors who follow this issue closely that her “ban” would have no teeth in practice.

But that’s not her brand; the left loves her not because she’s willing to hide behind loopholes but because she’s a loud-and-proud filibusterin’ bulwark against the pro-life patriarchy. Says Jonah Goldberg, what exactly are people who “stand with Wendy” standing for at this point? Do they even know?

On January 22 the Republican National Committee issued a strongly worded resolution telling pro-life candidates it would support those “who fight back against Democratic deceptive ‘war on women’ rhetoric by pointing out the extreme positions on abortion held by Democratic opponents” and back away from those “who stay silent in the face of such deceptive rhetoric.”

So game on. The RNC has learned, quoting the resolution again, that “[c]andidates who stay silent on pro-life issues do not identify with key voters, fail to alert voters to the Democrats’ extreme pro-abortion stances, and have lost their elections.”

Like we said.

This past Wednesday the March for Life in Washington, D.C., saw RNC Chairman Reince Priebus speak from the rally podium as well as House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (pictured above right) – physically backing up the resolution.

More on the Republican pro-life surge from telegram.com:

Albuquerque voters will today decide the fate of an initiative that would ban abortions past 20 weeks in their city.

Should the ban pass, a lawsuit to block it is certain. What happens after that is anything but. New ground in the fight to stop abortion is being broken.

What sets ABQ’s 20-week abortion ban apart, of course, is it’s a local, not state ban. Thirteen states have now passed similar bans. Three are currently enjoined as they work their way through the courts.

Early voting on the first local ban in the country on abortions past 20 weeks began in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on October 30. It will run until November 15, with Election Day on November 19.

Albuquerque is currently a late-term abortion magnet, as it is home to abortionist Curtis Boyd’s Southwestern Women’s Options, where elective abortions are committed “through 28 weeks” and “later” for maternal/fetal indications.

This ban would set a dangerous precedent for abortion supporters. They are already fighting a losing battle in their attempts to extinguish pro-life fires among the states, but their troubles would grow exponentially were they also forced to deal with hundreds or thousands of local municipalities.

Perhaps this is why Barack Obama’s Organizing for Action has gotten involved:

Republicans in the House of Representatives have offered to start funding the federal government again if President Obama orders an immediate ban on all abortions. In a lengthy press conference this morning, House Speaker John Boehner hailed the idea as a compromise solution to the ongoing crisis and blasted Democrats for refusing to consider the […]