One can debate the ethics of abortion, and respect is due to the thoughtful advocates on either side. But no such respect is due to those who, completely unmoored from decency and ethical values because of their political passions, attack someone for not choosing to have an abortion.

This is what some hysterics on the Democratic side have come to: sneering at Vice-President nominee Sarah Palin for not aborting her Down Syndrome child, and representing the decision of her teenaged daughter not to abort her out-of-wedlock child as a cultural offense. The headlines were grabbed by South Carolina Democratic chairwoman Carol Fowler, who said that John McCain had chosen a running mate “whose primary qualification seems to be that she hasn't had an abortion.” But she isn’t alone. Thanks to Wall Street Journal blogger James Taranto for spotting these despicable quotes:

From The Atlantic blogger (and occasional NBC political analyst), Andrew Sullivan:

“…And then, because [John McCain] could see he was going to lose, ten days ago, he threw caution to the wind and with no vetting whatsoever, picked a woman who, by her decision to endure her own eight-month pregnancy of a Down Syndrome child in public, to announce that he was going to reignite the culture war as a last stand against Obama.”

And this, from Salon’s Cintra Wilson:

“Sarah Palin is a bit comical, like one of those cutthroat Texas cheerleader stage moms. What her Down syndrome baby and pregnant teenage daughter unequivocally prove, however, is that her most beloved child is the antiabortion platform that ensures her own political ambitions with the conservative right.”

The brave choices of two mothers to give two unborn children an opportunity to live should not be derided as political posturing or an attempt to win points in the “culture wars.” Imagine the outrage if a partisan conservative accused a pro-choice candidate of aborting a fetus for political gain. The comments of Fowler, Sullivan and Wilson are equally cruel and irresponsible. The ugly side of the conservative zealots has been on display in this campaign for quite a while. If the nomination of Palin accomplished nothing else, it has exposed the equally offensive lack of ethical restraint from the Left.