I opened my Triangle & Co. section of The News & Observer this morning to find an obituary praising Susan Hill, “a national women’s rights advocate and the owner of several abortion clinics around the country.” The headline for the story was “Abortion rights pioneer dies at 61.”

Now, I’m as sad for her family as anyone, but I’m not sure this is the kind of pioneer any newspaper should be lauding. No matter how you cut it, an abortion kills a baby. Giving section-front coverage to someone who opened a chain of baby-killing stores seems an odd editorial choice. I guess that’s the kind of business the mainstream media finds it can like.

A friend said of Hill: “She was a determined pioneer for women’s rights.” Fetus rights, well, that’s something else altogether. If the brouhaha over the Tim Tebow Super Bowl ad shows anything, it’s that, for the left and the women’s movement, it’s never been about choice, it’s been about killing babies. They are just beside themselves that Tebow’s mom exercised the choice of life over death for her incipient Heisman Trophy winner.

Ironically, on page 7 of the same section is a story headlined “Fetal homicide debate revisited.” This story and the obit actually should have been packaged as related items.

Jon Ham is publisher of Carolina Journal.