Book Review: The Party of Death

With his most recent book, The Party of Death: The Democrats, the Media, the Courts, and the Disregard for Human Life, Ramesh Ponnuru has documented the truth that we knew all to well. The Democratic Party, with help from the biased media and activist courts, has been hijacked by social liberals bent on thrusting their “progressive” agenda onto the American people. Ironically, as a result of the increasingly Jacobin Democratic Party, there are now far fewer living people on whom it can force its message.

Released on 24 April 2006, the book has a clear thesis. It contends that, with abortion as its metaphorical foot in the door, the Democratic Party (or at least the far-left radicals at its helm) is slowly attempting to water down the right that our Founding Fathers deemed “self-evident”—that of life itself. Before delving into the very real possibility that “progressive” radicals will one day usurp our very right to exist, Ponnuru traces the history of the disastrous Roe v. Wade (1973) decision, from which contemporary attempts to cheapen life derive their primary justification. The history of the decision and its consequences occupy much of the first section of Ponnuru’s book, with the realignment of partisan politics also clearly delineated.

Atrociously decided and frequently misunderstood, the Roe v. Wade case is unhinged with relative ease by Ponnuru, who employs only simple facts and logic. Ponnuru sears into the belief that Roe v. Wade was a moderate approach to the abortion issue. Many people, including well-respected journalist Gregg Easterbrook, are utterly ignorant about “what Roe wrought.” They have been duped into believing that Roe made a clear distinction between the three trimesters—namely, that Roe allowedunrestricted abortion in the first, regulated it somewhat in the second, and proscribed it in the third. No such distinction actually exists.

In reality, Roe made all abortions, at any time during the pregnancy, completely legal and unrestricted. This is a result of the “health” exception to the Roe decision, which allowed an abortion to take place in the later stages of a pregnancy so long as the woman’s health was at stake. A decision reached the same day by the (Harry) Blackmun Court, Doe v. Bolton (1973), declared that such exceptions included any factor related to “physical, emotional, psychological, familial, and the woman’s age,” therefore eliminating any possibility of a ban by the actual people themselves (10).

Ponnuru summarizes the entire situation quite nicely: “How could anyone ever be prosecuted for violating a ban on late-term abortion under this rule? The ‘attending physician’—in real life, very often an abortionist with a financial stake in the decision—can always say that in his medical judgment, the abortion was necessary to preserve the woman’s emotional ‘health,’ especially considered in light of her ‘familial’ situation. “ (10)

After adeptly identifying just how radical a decision Roe was, and how it was clearly out of touch with the wishes of the majority of Americans, Ponnuru cuts into the politicians that cowardly exchanged principle for dreams of greater power. Needless to say, the gang of the most notable cravens is limited to Democrats. On the list of pro-life defectors are: Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE), former Sen. Paul Simon (D-IL), former Rep. Dick Gephardt (D-MS), former Vice President Al Gore, former President Bill Clinton, former Sen. Bob Kerrey (D-NE), Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), and even the lead jackal himself, Sen. Ted Kennedy (DMA). All nine cowards, under varying circumstances, defected from their principles when they mounted bids for higher office.