On June 18th, Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee was a guest on “The Daily Show” with Jon Stewart. Viewers of the “Daily Show” will be familiar with the short two or three minute interviews with a special guest after at the end of every episode, but the full, unedited interviews are posted on the show’s website.

The full interview with Governor Huckabee can be found here. As a tongue in cheek comedian known for often peddling political cliches, one might not expect serious candor on such a firestarter as abortion from Mr. Stewart. But in this case, viewers will be pleasantly surprised.

As a strict debate judged on merits of points, it would be difficult at best to call a victory for Stewart. Huckabee showed a commanding control over the flow of discussion, and was able to continually emphasize and re-emphasize the humanity of the unborn and their right to Constitutional protection. But the real good news was the civility of the discussion, without rancor, condescension, or the scoring of cheap points.

Both Stewart and Huckabee showed a pleasantly surprising willingness to actually listen to each other and follow arguments to their logical conclusions. Stewart even conceeded that perhaps there ought to be more education on fetal development, as well as more regulation of abortion in some cases.

As NRL News Editor Dave Andrusko put it:

“At the end of the segment Stewart made this remarkably thoughtful admission. ‘I can be incredibly certain about so many issues and get my dander up, and self-righteousness. This is one I can’t, and this is the one that I probably, in the culture, struggle with the most. I think it’s a very difficult issue.’”

NATIONAL RIGHT TO LIFE APPLAUDS 4TH CIRCUIT RULING

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC) applauded the 6-5 ruling by the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals upholding the Commonwealth of Virginia’s ban on partial-birth infanticide.  The ruling overturns the previous decision of a three-judge panel of the Court and allows the Commonwealth’s statute protecting women and their pre-born children to stand.

In a compelling concurring opinion, Judge Wilkinson recalled the often-ignored interest of the state in protecting human life, writing: “A partially born child is among the weakest, most helpless beings in our midst and on that account exerts a special claim on our protection.”

Today’s decision follows the strong precedent established by the Supreme Court’s decision in Gonzales v. Carhart (2007) upholding the federal Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act. Notably, President Barack Obama, who has cited a respect for judicial precedent as criteria for his judicial nominees, voiced his strong disagreement with the Gonzales decision while serving as U.S. senator from Illinois, couching his support for partial-birth abortion as a matter of women’s health.

In contrast, Mary Spaulding Balch, J.D., NRLC director of State Legislation asserts that “To maintain that puncturing the skull and removing the brain of a child who is in the process of being born is necessary for the health of the mother is a fallacy. We are relieved by the Court’s decision to allow the Commonwealth of Virginia to protect mothers and their children from the egregious procedure of partial-birth abortion.

That was how Congressman Chris Smith summed up the first months of Barack Obama’s presidency at the Convention closing banquet. In his speech, the Congressman both reviewed the actions of President Obama so far, the actions ongoing at this time, and those to come. From the repeal of the Mexico City policy and the rampant attempts of Planned Parenthood to partner with the Chinese government’s one child policy, to opening the door to the destruction of human embryos, Rep. Smith described the pro-abortion movement and the resistance of pro-lifers as, “the greatest human rights struggle on Earth.”

Great attention was given to the issue of health care reform. As a member of Congress and one of the most ardent champions of life in Washington for the last two decades, the Congressman is closely familiar with the coming and ongoing policy debates. On health care reform, Rep. Smith highlighted the dangerous possibilities in the soon to be revealed legislation, from overt mandates to abortion, to hidden directives in the creation of a “Medical Advisory Council” or directives from the Secretary of Health and Human Services to decide what health services will be covered in the new plan. In addition to health care, Congressman Smith spent a few moments on the Hyde Amendment, a law which has prevented Medicaid funding of abortion for decades, and is credited with having saved over a million lives. If the Hyde Amendment were repealed, the coffers of abortuaries would overflow with taxpayer dollars.

The Congressman was not all doom and gloom however. He praised the dedication and long standing commitment of all pro-lifers, and was confident in our collective ability to stand athwart the pro-abortion movement once again. He, like so many others recently, drew parallels to the early decade of the Clinton Administration, when pro-lifers feared for disastrous health care reform and sweeping pro-abortion mandates, just as we are all on edge now. We can draw strength from our success before, and encouragement in the days to come.

The Congressman’s message was dire and at times ominous, but there was a perhaps not immediately evident note of hope in his praise of pro-lifer’s actions as actions as a community full of “selfless expression of love for the truth.”

Rep. Smith’s words were not merely a generous compliment; they were an affirmation of both the clear scientific fact of life from conception to natural death, and of the moral recognition of the worth of that life. NRLC thanks Congressman Smith warmly, and applauds his continued dedication in defense of life.

Just to let you all know, we’ll be live-blogging all the goings on (with perhaps a few behind the scenes peeks along the way) this week here at the Blake Hotel in Charlotte, North Carolina.

To follow along, just check out the Convention page link on the right hand side of the screen. Or go here.

Convention starts Thursday morning with the Reverend Doctor Tadeusz Pacholczyk keynoting our first general session (and his intellect is at least as impressive as his name).