
New undercover videos of abortion professionals explaining late-term abortions, coupled with states passing strict abortion laws and a horror-show abortion criminal case, are keeping abortion at the top of the news — an unexpected development after the nation re-elected its most vocal pro-choice president.

President Obama offered a defiant defense of government funding for Planned Parenthood Friday and urged the group's members to help his administration sign up more women for benefits under his besieged health-care law.

A federal judge ordered the Food and Drug Administration on Friday to make a morning-after birth control pill available without a prescription for girls younger than 17 within 30 days — a blunt opinion that rebuked decisions by the Obama administration as politically motivated.

Alas, the Grand Old Party needs grand old changing. So says Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus, who is convinced the weary GOP needs a fancy new identity, as outlined in the "Growth and Opportunity Project" study released with much ado Monday.

Pro-life forces have legislative momentum across the country heading into 2013, but pro-choice supporters also see plenty of opportunities to win in and out of the courts, as the nation's political clash over abortion rights shows no signs of easing ahead of the 40th anniversary this month of the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision.

Fiscally sensible, check. Limited government, check. Pro-life, check. Leadership qualities, check. Thrilled conservatives and contented Republicans have tweeted their delight over South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley's decision to appoint Rep. Tim Scott to replace Sen. Jim DeMint next month.

"Regardless of the final results of the election, Wednesday, Nov. 7 continues a gigantic battle between small-government, constitutional conservatives and the big-government Republicans for the heart and soul of the GOP," longtime conservative maven Richard Viguerie tells Inside the Beltway.

With his statement Tuesday that pregnancy from rape is God's will, Senate candidate Richard Mourdock became the latest Republican to stumble into trouble attempting to articulate a key pro-life argument against abortion — that life begins at conception — but doing so in a way that appears insensitive to women.

Planned Parenthood: Abortion conglomerate or benign guardian of women's health?