Dissension in the ranks...

The anti-choice crowd are starting to chew on each others' legs. Apparently various groups of anti-choice activists view the US Supreme Court's upholding of the partial birth abortion ban differently and the criticism is aimed directly at Focus On The Family's, James Dobson.

In a highly visible rift in the anti-abortion movement, a coalition of evangelical Protestant and Roman Catholic groups is attacking a longtime ally, Focus on the Family founder James C. Dobson.

Using rhetoric that they have reserved in the past for abortion clinics, some of the coalition's leaders accuse Dobson and other national antiabortion leaders of building an "industry" around relentless fundraising and misleading information.

It took them long enough, but then those same groups were more than happy to ally themselves with Dobson when it looked like his group of Christofascists were useful to their cause.

Now, they're not happy.

In an open letter to Dobson that was published as a full-page ad May 23 in the Colorado Springs Gazette, Focus on the Family's hometown newspaper, and May 30 in the Washington Times, the heads of five small but vocal groups called the Carhart decision "wicked," and accused Dobson of misleading Christians by applauding it.

Carhart is even "more wicked than Roe" because it is "not a ban, but a partial-birth abortion manual" that affirms the legality of late-term abortions "as long as you follow its guidelines," the ads said. "Yet, for many years you have misled the Body of Christ about the ban, and now about the ruling itself."

The Christian groups don't accept that the decision of the US Supreme Court is tantamount to a group of old men telling women how their health is going to be managed and interfering with medical practice and decisions which should not extend beyond a woman and her doctor.

Another signer, the Rev. Bob Enyart, a Christian talk radio host and pastor of the Denver Bible Church, said the real issue is fundraising.

"Over the past seven years, the partial-birth abortion ban as a fundraising technique has brought in over a quarter of a billion dollars" for major antiabortion groups, "but the ban has no authority to prevent a single abortion, and pro-life donors were never told that," he said. "That's why we call it the pro-life industry."

In Rohrbough's view, partisan politics is also involved.

"What happened in the abortion world is that groups like National Right to Life, they're really a wing of the Republican Party, and they're not geared to push for personhood for an unborn child -- they're geared to getting Republicans elected," he said. "So we're seeing these ridiculous laws like the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban put forward, and then we're deceived about what they really do."

If there is anything stunning in Rohrbough's information it is that the fundamentalist Christian anti-choice groups are apparently only now becoming aware of the motivation of groups like National Right to Life and Focus On The Family. Rational thinkers have been aware for years that such groups and their leaders are motivated by money and political power. It makes one wonder how they weren't cognizant of that in the first place. And, if they were, why they provided cover for Dobson and his kind.

It should be interesting to watch and see how long it takes the Christian coalition to start calling Dobson a "liberal".

Hat tip reader Cat