There's been a lot of shocked commentary on Virginia Governor Ralph Northam's support for infanticide, but I'm not sure why people are surprised at his views.
Infanticide, causing the death of already born children or fetuses in the process of being born, has been supported by leading Democrats for at least twenty five years and supported by philosophers like Peter Singer for much longer than that.
For example, Republican-led Congresses first passed bills banning partial-birth abortion (PBA) in December 1995 and again October 1997, but both pieces of legislation were vetoed by President Bill Clinton.
PBA, also known as intact dilation and extraction, is a late-term abortion procedure. After inducing labor, the abortion provider typically turns the baby around (while still within the mother) and pulls the child’s leg(s) out, leaving the head in the uterus.
The baby’s head is then pierced with a sharp implement, creating a cavity through which the brains are sucked out, causing the skull to collapse and making it easier for the baby to be pulled out. In other words, the baby is killed while in the process of being born.
After Mr. Clinton was no longer in office the procedure was again banned by Congress, and the ban was signed into law by President George W. Bush in 2003. It was challenged in the courts by pro-choice groups and upheld by the Supreme Court in Gonzales v. Carhart.
Contemporaneously, the Illinois state senate sought several times in the early 2000s to protect the lives of children born alive after a botched abortion. These children were often left to die of exposure and dehydration in various facilities around the state, and the state senate sought to end this inhumane neglect with the Illinois Born Alive Infant Protection Act (BAIPA).
BAIPA was introduced to insure that babies who survive attempted abortions are provided the same medical care and sustenance as any other infant born alive. BAIPA was introduced after evidence was presented that babies born alive after unsuccessful abortions were simply discarded in utility closets without food, care, or medical treatment until they died.
As an Illinois state senator at the time, Barack Obama voted twice against the BAIPA.
Mr. Obama saw such protections for the child as an unconstitutional infringement on a woman's right to choose even though the nation's foremost abortion advocacy group, NARAL, had no problem with it. As President, Mr. Obama also expressed concern about the Supreme Court decision upholding the ban on PBA.
Whether the issue has been eugenics back in the 1920s, or abortion in the 1970s, or partial birth abortion in the 1990s, or infanticide in the 2000s progressives have often supported the most extreme position.
It's little wonder, then, that Governor Northam would be taken aback by the outcry over what he probably thought was a reasonable articulation of the mainstream liberal position.