In October 1999, during floor debate concerning a bill to ban partial-birth abortions, senator Barbara Boxer of California, responding to questions from senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, briefly let slip the startling notion that babies should not begin to enjoy constitutional and other legal protections in the United States -- against murder, for example -- until after they arrive home with their mothers from the hospital. Here's the relevant passage from the Congressional Record:
SANTORUM: "I would like to ask you this question. You agree, once the child is born, separated from the mother, that that child is protected by the Constitution and cannot be killed. Do you agree with that?"
BOXER: "I think when you bring your baby home, when your baby is born . . . the baby belongs to your family and has rights."
SANTORUM: "Obviously, you don't mean they have to take the baby out of the hospital for it to be protected by the Constitution. Once the baby is separated from the mother, you would agree -- completely separated from the mother -- you would agree that baby is entitled to constitutional protection?"
BOXER: "I don't want to engage in this. You had the same conversation with a colleague of mine, and I never saw such a twisting of his remarks."
Well. Lest it be inferred from the above that Barbara Boxer has a heart of stone where defenseless life is concerned, comes now the senator, during a January 30 floor debate over the confirmation of interior secretary Gale Norton, to set you straight.
BOXER: "We are talking about God's creations that we have a responsibility to protect. This is Mojave National Preserve Joshua trees. We have to move to protect them. Let us show some other habitat. Let us show the beautiful habitat of Alaska. Here we can see some of the magnificent caribou up in Alaska. . . . We have to think about their whole habitat if we are going to protect them and not have this narrow view that Ms. Norton has articulated."
Gale Norton probably thinks the caribou have to get home from the hospital before we need concern ourselves with their safety. But Barbara Boxer, by gum, has a very different view of "God's creations."