Extremists

This is indeed amazing:

McCain’s decision to leave the platform untouched follows a warning from a prominent social conservative.

“If he were to change the party platform,” to account for exceptions such as rape, incest or risk to the mother’s life, “I think that would be political suicide,” Tony Perkins, the president of the conservative Family Research Council, told ABC News in May. “I think he would be aborting his own campaign because that is such a critical issue to so many Republican voters and the Republican brand is already in trouble.”

I wasn’t aware that this was even a significant point of controversy. Even the Texas law struck down in Roe had an exemption for a mother’s life. But the FRC can always surprise you!

It’s also worth remembering, though, that even McCain’s (former) position was only marginally less extreme. McCain supported (and still supports) a constitutional amendment that would make abortion a serious criminal offense in all 50 states. And in a sense, the party’s fanatic wing is providing a favor by not allowing McCain a false veneer of moderation by putting meaningless and essentially unenforceable rape and incest exemptions in the platform. Or, at least, would be providing a favor if Democratic politicians were more interested in putting Republican candidates on the defensive about their highly unpopular abortion policies.