"Suddenly, outraged liberals are sounding remarkably like libertarian advocates of laissez-faire capitalism"
So writes A. Barton Hinkle of the Richmond Times-Dispatch in a column describing how pro-choice advocates in Virginia are responding to some arbitrary and meddlesome new anti-abortion restrictions passed last week by the state's General Assembly:
Abortion-rights supporters fume that the new rules really have nothing to do with protecting consumers and are, instead, part of an ideological campaign to "get" their industry. The same might be said about other industries fighting other regulations — e.g., payday lenders. Many people also find those operations morally odious and want to regulate them out of existence as well. Ditto the production of silicone breast implants, genetically modified crops, factory farming, and so on. That people with agendas exploit government power for political ends is not exactly news. Want to stop them? Limit government power in the first place.