Once again, the far right has gotten it all wrong. Lifesite.net writes about a letter from Ron Weddington to President Clinton in 1993, unearthed by Judicial Watch in a recent batch of papers made public at the Clinton Library. The letter has been dredged up as part of an effort to suggest that RU-486 was rushed to market by the Clinton Administration. Never mind the letter, nor Weddington, have any bearing on that issue.

The Weddington letter is reprehensible in its discussion of using abortion for "eliminating" the "barely educated, unhealthy and poor." But the Lifesite article is, at best, a stretch, even for people who are accustomed to stretching things pretty far. They take this one nutty letter, written by someone with an unfortunate link to a famous case (he was at one time married to Sarah Weddington, lawyer in Roe v. Wade), and try to make it into some manifesto for every person who believes in individual liberty, privacy and reproductive choice.

Mr. Weddington's letter and the far right activists have one thing in common: they both want to remove choice from the equation. Weddington would enforce reproductive health policies on women and families in the same way right wing activists would. Both are wrong.

This letter, and the reporting on it, are perfect examples of Reckless Rhetoric and the politics of polarization that the far right is finally becoming known for in moderate middle America. The anger and frustration of the far right at not getting more attention from the White House, after sacrificing so much, is driving them crazy, and this latest letter is just one more piece of evidence of a movement in decline.

In fact, the Clinton Administration played a key role in transforming international population and development programs away from a demographic/numbers focus and toward a rights/needs based framework that emphasizes the inherent freedom of individuals and couples to decide freely and responsibly the number and spacing of their children.