We whored ourselves, but all we got was screwed

Feeling "rode hard and put away wet" yet, fellow pro-life Christian types?

For the better part of 30 years, orthodox Christians and others against killing babies in the womb supply-sided their Christian witness, added a party-line gospel that had nothing -- absolutely nothing -- to do with Jesus Christ crucified, risen and coming again . . . and all we got was a lousy ban on partial-birth abortion.

Which dedicated abortionists now have found a way around.

Meanwhile, we've stuck the nation with the likes of David Vitter, Larry Craig and the torturer-in-chief, George W. Bush -- a man for whom no delusion about a failed war in a Middle Eastern dung heap is too insane to be held tight.

Do you think God is trying to tell us something?

FOR 30 YEARS, we believed that a bunch of conservative politicians whose basic assumptions about economics and society tend to violate Christian ethics in one key aspect or another -- starting with "blessed are the poor" -- had the power to save a society sick unto death. Meanwhile, we lost confidence in the power of the Savior of the world to redeem a shallow, oversexed and avaricious culture.

We have rendered ourselves unto Caesar -- or Reagan, Bush, Dole and Bush . . . whatever -- and all we got was this lousy job at Burger King, a bumper sticker and a campaign T-shirt. And that unjust, stupid little war in Iraq that's killing our young men and women while smashing our military to bits for . . . ?

Here's the abortion story from The Boston Globe, via the Omaha World-Herald:

In response to the Supreme Court decision last spring upholding the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, many abortion providers around the country have adopted a defensive tactic: To avoid any chance of partly delivering a live infant, they are injecting fetuses with lethal drugs before procedures.

That shift in late-term abortions goes deeply against the grain, some doctors say: It poses a slight risk to the woman and offers her no medical benefit.

"We do not believe that our patients should take a risk for which the only clear benefit is a legal one to the physician," Dr. Philip Darney, chief of obstetrics at San Francisco General Hospital, wrote in an e-mail. He has chosen not to use the injections.

But others feel compelled to do all they can to protect themselves and their staff from the possibility of being accused.

Upheld in April, the federal ban is broadly written, does not specify an age for the fetus, and carries a two-year prison sentence. It forbids partly delivering a live fetus, then intentionally causing its death.

Even before the ban, the method known medically as intact dilation and extraction — typically involving removal of a fetus as far as the skull, which then is punctured and drained to ease its passage through the cervix — was rare, accounting for less than 1 percent of all abortions.

Instead, doctors usually use the method known as dilation and evacuation, in which the fetus is killed surgically while still inside the uterus before removal.

Now, if a fetus is not dead as it is removed, a provider might be accused of violating the law. So the lethal injections beforehand, carefully documented, are aimed at precluding any accusation.

Bellevue abortion provider Dr. LeRoy Carhart did not return repeated calls from The World-Herald seeking comment on whether he uses such injections.

A spokeswoman for the New York-based Center for Reproductive Rights, whose attorneys have represented Carhart, declined to comment.

In a 2004 court case, Carhart testified that, in abortions after 18 weeks, he first anesthetizes and then kills the fetus inside the uterus with drugs. Asked whether he thought such injections were safe for his patients, Carhart replied yes.

Dr. Michael Greene, director of obstetrics at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, said that in experienced hands, the injections add no risk and are "trivially simple" compared with other obstetrical procedures. The main drawback, he said, is that "it is yet another procedure that the patient has to endure."

Patients have not objected to the injections, Greene said.

"They all are appreciative of what we do for them and understand the circumstances under which we work," he said.

The injections are generally used in abortions after 18 or 20 weeks of gestation. Medical staff inject the heart drug digoxin or potassium chloride.

Dr. Mark Nichols, professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Oregon Health & Science University, said his impression is that most providers of later-term abortions are making injections routine.

At his own clinic, he said, the new rule is that any patient with a fetus over 20 weeks' gestation must have an injection.

YOU HAVE TO WONDER what might have been had pro-life Evangelicals, Southern Baptists, Catholics and their fellow travelers had put all the time and treasure they squandered on the Republican Party on evangelizing a lost people and transforming a debased culture.

How many of our slaughtered little brothers and sisters might be here with us today had we given George W. Bush less and the poor more?

How many abortionists might be looking for honest work today had we loved power less and loved our children more?

How many souls might have been rescued from the wickedness and snares of the devil had we retreated to Christian ghettos less and impacted the American culture more? Would we be having this highly unsatisfying conversation today if we loved Jesus Christ more than Jesus Junk?

IT TAKES A SPECIAL BUNCH of self-righteous idiots to act like a bunch of two-bit whores, then be utterly surprised when they get nothing but screwed.

Sad thing is, when we get screwed, it's our neighbors -- and our kids -- who catch that nasty STD.