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This weekend, the Washington Post published a remarkable op-ed by Loren Clark-Moe in which she argues against the Hyde Amendment, which bans the federal government from paying for abortions except in cases of rape, incest or when the life of the mother is threatened. Clark-Moe relates her own experience as a federal worker who found herself facing an unplanned and unwanted pregnancy and her disappointment when she found that her government-sponsored health insurance did not cover the procedure. It is not remarkable that she fails to see the Hyde Amendment as arguably the best instance of current law embodying the ambivalence most Americans feel about abortion, willing to tolerate it, but not wanting to do anything to advocate it. But, what is remarkable is the number of times the words "I" and "me" and "mine" appear in the piece, all, of course, without once mentioning the child. This is not just libertarianism, but a certain kind of public narcissism, but how to distinguish between the two?
