“What would you think of Elizabeth Colbert Busch if I told you she had had an abortion?” As Sesali reported last week, South Carolina voters were asked this very question by a polling group seeking not to crunch numbers in preparation for today’s election but rather smear Mark Sanford’s Democratic opponent for the South Carolina’s First Congressional District. As shocking as this tactic may be, it’s nothing new. At The New Republic, Nora Caplan-Bricker (who graduated with me last year) writes:

Smears about abortion have a rich history outside of South Carolina as well. Abortion is such a four-letter word in conservative districts, politicians often try to pin their opponents with some connection to the procedure. ...