'The anti-abortion movement's religious worship of the union of egg and sperm'

Opinion, comment and editorials of the day

Demonstrators holds a cross during in the March For Life anti abortion rally in front of the US Supreme Court in Washington, DC on January 19, 2024
Demonstrators holds a cross during in the March For Life anti-abortion rally in front of the US Supreme Court in Washington, DC on January 19, 2024
(Image credit: Roberto Schmidt /AFP via Getty Images)

'Would you expect a firefighter to run into a burning building to save a frozen embryo?'

Robin Abcarian in the Los Angeles Times

The Alabama Supreme Court just "ruled that frozen human embryos are people too" in the most ridiculous example yet of the anti-abortion right's "religious worship of the union of egg and sperm," says Robin Abcarian. A frozen embryo is "a tiny blob of undifferentiated cells," not an "extrauterine" child. Alabama has already criminalized abortion since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Now fertility centers face legal peril, too, as the state "slides toward theocracy."  

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'Trump's GOP is a confederacy of fakers'

Thomas L. Friedman in The New York Times

Former President Donald Trump's Republican Party will stoop to "any form of crow eating, bootlicking, backtracking and backstabbing to stay in his good graces," however "un-American his demand," says Thomas L. Friedman. "Trump decides to just dump Ukraine? Bye-bye, Zelensky." Trump dislikes a bipartisan "grand bargain on immigration reform? Gone." The GOP is stuck in a "doom loop" of "performing for Trump" to get clicks, donations, and votes. "It is all fake." The trouble is, our enemies are real. 

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'Biden rewrites "An American Tragedy"'

Arthur Herman in The Wall Street Journal

President Joe Biden "is poised to become the most discredited American president since Richard Nixon," says Arthur Herman. And his "diminished mental and physical capacity" is only part of it. "Instead of uniting Americans as he promised in 2020, he has made us weaker and more divided." He "handed out concessions" to enemies, abandoning Afghanistan to the Taliban and letting China buy Russian oil despite sanctions over Moscow's Ukraine invasion. "We had a right to expect more."

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'The House should find a way to vote on supporting our allies'

National Review editorial board

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) "doesn't dare" bring up the $95 billion aid bill for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, says the National Review editorial board. Passing it without funding to secure the U.S.-Mexico border "would cause a revolt among the GOP's fiercest opponents of Ukraine aid." But Johnson has to get it done. Failure, "as Russia gains the upper hand in Ukraine" and Israel defends itself "against its terrorist enemies," would fuel the image of Republican "dysfunction."

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Harold Maass, The Week US

Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.