Legal Commentary

I wrote yesterday that President Obama should wait a day (or more) before acting to rescind the so-called "global gag rule" on abortion, rather than acting on yesterday's anniversary of Roe v. Wade, because doing so would reject the treatment of abortion as a symbolic rather than a substantive and serious issue, would deprive both sides of the culture wars with the traditional symbolic victory (or defeat) that they use to continue fund-raising, and would help restore abortion to the status of a serious issue that demands discussion and is above the politics of symbolism.  Apparently either great minds think alike or I have friends in high places.  The Wall Street Journal reports:

President Barack Obama will issue an order restoring U.S. funding for international family-planning groups involved with abortion. But he chose not to do so on Thursday, the anniversary of Roe v. Wade.

President Obama was breaking with the tradition set by his recent predecessors to make an abortion-related order on the anniversary of the Supreme Court ruling, another example of his attempt to support liberal policies he believes in while trying to defuse emotional political debates.