Rep. Renee Ellmers of North Carolina was among the spineless Republicans who abandoned ship at the last minute and helped stop a vote on the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act. Adding insult to injury, the bill – which enjoys overwhelming popular support – went down on Sanctity of Life Day. The bill would have banned abortions after 20 weeks, when the baby can indisputably feel pain. Ellmers and a few other GOP women, however, objected to a reporting requirement for the rape exemption, arguing that it played into the hands of Democrats’ “war on women” rhetoric. And then Ellmers condemned “the abhorrent and childish behaviors from some of the leaders of the outside groups,” by which she means pro-lifers who criticized her actions.

National Review’s David French responded perfectly: “Representative Ellmers (and her sympathizers in the House GOP) fail to understand how much pro-life groups are compromising to support bills with rape/incest exceptions to abortion bans. A child conceived in rape or incest is every bit as human, every bit as innocent, and every bit as capable of feeling pain when dismembered as a child conceived in different circumstances. Pro-life groups typically support bills with rape/incest exceptions not because they believe children of rape or incest are any less human but because they understand current political reality – that it’s better to save some lives when pushing for purity could result in saving none.”

French also noted that an exception can quickly become so big as to undermine the entire law. And it’s certainly not “childish” to demand some backbone from our representatives when the very lives of the least among us are at stake.