Baby Killing Is Fine. Yearbook Photos Are The Problem.

Last week, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam was hit with a shocking blast from the past: a photo on his medical school yearbook page of a man in blackface and another man in a Ku Klux Klan outfit. Northam quickly apologized for the photo, then said he wasn't in the photo and then admitted he had once worn blackface and dressed up as Michael Jackson for a dance contest. He nearly moonwalked at a press conference before his wife gave him a look that could curdle milk.

For this sin — the sin of an old, disgusting, racially insensitive photo — Northam now finds his political career on the skids. As of this writing, he's hanging on by his fingernails, even as his lieutenant governor struggles with dicey sexual assault allegations.

The same week that Northam found himself in hot water, he endorsed a Virginia bill that would have broadened the ability of women to obtain an abortion up to the point of birth. Virginia Delegate Kathy Tran, a sponsor of the bill, stated in defense of her legislation that women would be able to obtain an abortion during labor. Northam then defended the bill, adding that if a baby were born alive during such an abortion — he assumed that the abortion would be due to "severe deformities" or "a fetus that's not viable" — then the baby could be "kept comfortable" while the family and the doctor decide its fate.

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