McCain's Book Club: The Arizona Senator Finds Himself in a Pro-Abortion Book.(John McCain and Barbara Boxer's endorsement of Richard North Patterson's novel Protect and Defend)(Brief Article)

This commentary appeared in a slightly different form on nationalreview.com, February 7, 2001. Reproduced with permission.

John McCain is hawking a book of pro-abortion propaganda to his colleagues. Surprised? Don't be. He's the hero of the story.

Richard North Patterson's novel Protect and Defend tells a familiar story: Meanspirited conservatives, Republicans, and Christian Right anti-abortion fanatics in Washington, D.C. vs. the pro-choice, anti-gun, pro-campaign-reform forces of light.

Senator Chad Palmer is twice a hero: once for enduring being kidnapped and held hostage by Islamic extremists, and now for supporting campaign-finance reform even though he's a Republican. Palmer used to be pro-life, until his teenage daughter was able to start turning her life around by getting a legal abortion. And now he has to vote on a controversial nominee to be chief justice of the Supreme Court. The previous one, a hateful old conservative, died of a stroke while giving the oath of office to the new Democratic president. The president names a feminist judge.

During her confirmation hearings, this judge writes a decision letting a 15-year-old girl abort her hydrocephalic fetus at seven and a half months--over the objections of her parents, who are tyrannical religious zealots. She is bitterly opposed by anti-abortionists with names like Mace and Harshman, as well as by a group called the "Christian Commitment." Eventually a sleazy Washington lobbyist exposes the abortion in Senator Palmer's family. His daughter, distraught, drinks a bottle of wine, gets behind the wheel on an icy night, and dies. So guess who casts the deciding vote in the Senate? And guess which way he votes?

Last month, real-life Senators John McCain and Barbara Boxer jointly sent a copy of this book to every member of the Senate. This evening, McCain and Boxer are hosting a reception and book-signing party for Patterson in the United States Capitol. (The cover letter says, "Since many Senators are role models for his characters, [we] know Ric would be very pleased to ...