Frist's Pro-life record

CNS has an article on soon-to-be-SML Bill Frist's pro-life record.

The Senator is pro-life except in the instances of rape, incest and when the life of the mother is threatened. This is, of course, a barely intelligible argument. What is the only reason to be pro-life? Because one acknowledges the humanity & personhood of the embryo. But if the embryo is acknowledged as being a human person, on what grounds can abortion in the case of rape & incest be considered morally licit?

According to the article, abortion is not one of Frist's top 14 issues (listed on his website). The website does have a statement Frist made on cloning:

No one can deny the potential human cloning holds for increased scientific understanding. [...] But given the serious ethical concerns this research raises, the fact that promising embryonic stem cell research will continue even under a cloning ban, the lack of significant research in animal models, and the existence of promising alternatives, I am unable to find a compelling justification for allowing human cloning today."

This is hardly a statement bound to reassure pro-lifers. And this is the guy the White House wants as Majority Leader.

Don't get me wrong: I realize that President Bush has other things on his mind. And I recognize that he has done a number of good things for the pro-life cause (I don't follow Judie "There's a cloud in every silver lining" Brown [credit to Kevin Miller for that] and her ever-present pessimism). But I wish he'd support a guy who is unabashedly pro-life, a guy like Rick Santorum.

Oh well.