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And yes, that's Pat Robertson saying that he opposes abortion but pretty much thinks China's one-child policy is necessary. "It's a clarification that doesn't clarify," Charles A. Donovan, executive vice president of the Family Research Council, tells The Washington Post. "I'm saddened and surprised. This policy [of forced abortion] doesn't need comfort, and it certainly doesn't need comfort from a Christian and a conservative."

Former Christian Coalition Director of Legislative Affairs Marshall Wittmann (who now works for the Heritage Foundation) sees serious repercussions for Robertson: "The Christian Coalition was already on life-support. Robertson's remarks probably mean its demise. The difficulty here is who is going to be the moral leader for religious conservatism."

Similar statements came from Concerned Women for America ("Babies are not the cause of China's problems—communism is") and the Traditional Values Coalition's Louis Sheldon ("Anyway you slice it, it's still baloney").

The New York Times reports that "officials at some organizations opposed to abortion declined to comment," but doesn't say which organizations. And those comments reporter Gustav Niebuhr did pick up weren't terribly strong. "The original statement was so shocking and depressing that I'm gratified that he has clarified it," says Gary Bauer "But the fact remains that a number of people that ought to know better, including some good American capitalists and too many conservative leaders, have been willing to make excuses for reprehensible behavior by Beijing." The Southern Baptist Convention's Richard Land merely calls Robertson's statement "a caution that we need to be very careful and very precise, lest we leave the wrong impression."

One of the more interesting responses to Robertson's comment comes from Kate Michelman, president of the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League. She points out that by supporting China's one-child policy and opposing abortion, Robertson showed "the deeply cynical side of his views. … The only thing he is consistent about is his opposition to the right of women to choose."

Also on abortion:

• New attention for the idea that abortion averts crime (The New York Times)
• Earlier: A Death Penalty Before the Crime (A Christianity Today Editorial, Oct. 4, 1999)

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April (Web-only) 2001, Vol. 45