Some wisdom on health care reform and abortion rights.

Michelle Goldberg hit the nail on the head with this piece at the American Prospect. She talks about the clusterfuck that the health care bill has left us, and how the pro-choice movement needs to hold some accountability for what happened:

We’ve reached a point where health-care reform hinges on abortion, but the pro-choice movement loses either way. It can’t rally behind the existing legislation. At the same time, because the future of abortion rights in America is deeply entwined with the future of the Democratic Party, the failure of health-care reform, and the consequent weakening of the Democrats, would ultimately be disastrous for choice. It’s a total mess. But was it inevitable?

It’s always easy to criticize tough political decisions in hindsight. It’s increasingly clear, though, that the pro-choice movement made a mistake going into health-care reform. It compromised too soon and underestimated the implacability of the opposition. It didn’t demand enough and ended up with less than nothing.

Check out the entire piece, it’s a must-read.