By Christine Todd Whitman
NJ.com
June 19, 2013

With the budget, spending and the debt ceiling all still very much a concern for our nation, House Republicans spent Tuesday passing the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, which would ban abortions after 20 weeks. The legislation makes exceptions for victims of rape and incest as long as they first report the crime to authorities, a change to the prior legislation that had no such reporting requirement in those situations.

While I have made no secret of being pro-choice, to me the folly in this legislation is not about the abortion issue. This is a bill that has absolutely zero chance of passing the Senate, and zero chance of getting past an Obama veto. Why spend our legislative energies on an area where there can be no possible progress? Why put yet another litmus test before the Republican caucus that forces them to be on the far right of this issue for no gain?

This is what we’re spending our energy on at the same time that the immigration bill is not going anywhere. Is it any wonder why we have lost recent elections?