It’s hard to say much about last night’s documentary because I think it largely spoke for itself. (For anyone who missed it, you can watch it online at The Rachel Maddow Show website.) But I do have to say a few things about why this documentary is so damn important.

First off, for Rachel Maddow to use her editorial power on a major cable news channel to address such a contentious issue as this in such a way — well, it’s just ground-breaking. When we talk about abortion on television, it’s either referring to some fictional television character that opts out of the abortion last-minute, or political pundits loudly debating about this word that loses its meaning. Because the ...