Peter Steinfels wrote an interesting columna few days in which he revealed that Karl Rove is set to be the featured speaker at the National Right to Life Committee’s annual convention (Hat tip: Grant Gallicho.) Steinfels asks:
“Is it politically naïve to be surprised that the nation’s leading anti-abortion organization, which describes itself as nonpartisan, would make the star of its election-year convention the embodiment of the Bush administration’s politics at their most calculating and hard-hitting?”
That’s putting it pretty politely. Rove is not only the grand master of sleazy calumnous negative campaigning but intimately associated with the worst errors of the Bush administration. Has the NRLC given up all pretense of being non-partisan?
More to the point: what did Karl Rove ever do on the abortion issue? Oh, he was active all right, but probably not in the way that the NRLC would appreciate. For Karl Rove was an intimate of Jack Abramoff, and was effectively his doorkeeper to the halls of power. This is now official: a House committee report shows quite clearly that Abramoff influenced White House policy through Karl Rove. They sometimes met clandestinely on street corners to avoid a paper trail. They had even shared a secretary, who remained a conduit between the two men. Most notoriously, Abramoff used Rove to remove a Department of Interior official, Alan Stayman, because Stayman favored better regulation of labor market conditions on the Northern Mariana islands.
We should note exactly what Jack Abramoff was defending in the Northern Mariana islands. A recap: the Northern Mariana islands are a US territory in Micronesia. The main industry is textiles, and its (female) workers come from a variety of Asian countries, especially China and the Philippines. These textile manufacturers enjoyed a distinct advantage as garments could travel tariff-free and quota-free to the US and could display the all-important “Made in the USA” label. They were also big clients of Jack Abramoff.
The female employees were subjected to appalling sweatshop conditions that included being forced to work 12 hour days, for half the U.S. minimum hourly wage, and to live in barbed wire prisons. They were effectively slaves. As Josh Marshall noted, this particular guest worker program was notorious for “forced abortion, slavery, child prostitution, sex trafficking, beatings, female workers kept in shacks with no plumbing surrounded by barbed wire and other fun stuff.” It’s true, the sweatshop owners forced women who became pregnant to have abortions. And as a sideline, taking advantage of the women’s highly vulnerable position, they also fostered sex slavery.
The man who provided support for the perpetuation of this system, the man who engaged in formal cooperation with this evil, the man whose close ally was turning a blind eye to forced abortion- is the man honored by a so-called pro-life organization. Not only this this an absolute scandal, but it shows that parts of the organized pro-life movement seems to have sold its soul…for nothing. Fr. Richard John Neuhaus is also a guest speaker. Shouldn’t he be put on the spot for sharing a podium with Rove?
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