Experts say that unreasonably critical people are motivated either by pride or the need for “a defense against recognizing [their] own shortcomings,” according to Psychology Today. That may explain something that is otherwise incomprehensible: The president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, the abortion lobbying group, slamming Republicans plotting to hurt “healthy kids” in utero.

After a Republican political misstep earlier this month, NARAL President Ilyse Hogue became their self-appointed inquisitor. Among the first actions of the new Congress, rank-and-file House Republicans tried to prevent the independent Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) from receiving anonymous complaints, and also to mandate that it keep pending investigations confidential. Democrats said the move would weaken ethical oversight. After a firestorm — most prominently from President-elect Trump’s Twitter account — their proposal was aborted.

But Hogue felt that effort, which was opposed by GOP leadership, gave her the opening she needed. As she wrote:

Shorter GOP statement to the American people today: “ethics, schmethics.”

— ilyse hogue (@ilyseh) January 3, 2017

Someone (OK, it was me) highlighted the tension between Hogue’s newfound role as public moralizer and her better-compensated position as the nation’s chief advocate of taxpayer-funded abortion-on-demand until the child is fully expelled from the birth canal.

The head of NARAL, the abortion lobby group, believes the Republican Party is involved in some unethical business. #prolife https://t.co/DF10dYSHpK

— Ben Johnson (@TheRightsWriter) January 3, 2017

I believe those who profit from taking innocent human life may not be the best ethical guides, @ilyseh. #prolife https://t.co/4b4YezReiN

— Ben Johnson (@TheRightsWriter) January 3, 2017

To my surprise, Hogue responded to me personally, multiple times. As she concluded:

@TheRightsWriter In fairness, I wasn’t applying 2 b ON Ethics Committee just suggesting independent oversight is a good thing. You disagree?

— ilyse hogue (@ilyseh) January 3, 2017

That seems curious, since NARAL has done everything it can to shield abortionists from any independent oversight, even under the most egregious conditions. After the grand jury report blamed Kermit Gosnell’s “house of horrors” on insufficient health inspections, NARAL lobbied Pennsylvania legislators against S.B. 732, which would have established regular, random inspections of the state’s abortion facilities. Oversight for thee, but not for me.

I pointed all this out:

You believe independent oversight is good. How do you feel about more regular health inspections of abortion facilities? @ilyseh #prolife https://t.co/M2aZAXfSkR

— Ben Johnson (@TheRightsWriter) January 3, 2017

Hogue retreated into silence.

Abortion Lobbyist Chides GOP for Hurting “Healthy Kids”

None the wiser, the next day Hogue returned to accuse Republicans of hurting pregnant women … and newborn babies.

Hogue wrote a flurry of tweets intended to shame Speaker Paul Ryan for repealing ObamaCare. After a litany of allegations — from claiming that repealing the ACA would affect domestic violence survivors to accusing the Speaker of personally seeking to impoverish women by forcing them to pay for their own birth control — Hogue said she was doing it all for the babies.

The head of NARAL tweeted to Speaker Ryan that, before ObamaCare, “62% of women didn’t have maternity coverage. Care much about healthy moms/healthy kids?”

The 62 percent statistic is only true of women who purchased their insurance on the individual market. In 2015, nine percent of women had individual plans, and more than a third of them had maternity coverage. But that was the least of Hogue’s transgressions-in-tweet.

Motivated by animus, the president of NARAL seemed oblivious that her message was the equivalent of Jesse James fretting about the inviolability of private property.

Hogue again replied to my incredulity by writing that she supported “healthy outcomes for wanted” children. When asked why only “wanted” children should avoid dismemberment, she again abandoned the field.

Ironically, Hogue likely joined in the Twitter storm because, like everyone else in D.C., she has higher aspirations. Formerly with MoveOn.org and Media Matters, Hogue just announced her withdrawal from the race to become chair of the Democratic National Committee in late December. Democratic convention delegates cheered when she announced she had an abortion this summer. During the primaries, she tried to define progressivism as adherence to identity politics, rather than Bernie Sanders’ misguided economic platform. (The only prominent person to defend her “healthy kids” tweet was Jess McIntosh, the Democratic operative who said that women who didn’t vote for Hillary Clinton suffered from “internalized misogyny.”)

If she hoped to show DNC officials she can effectively communicate their message to the broader public, she made an ignominious debut.

Planned Parenthood is guilty of $12.8 million in “waste, abuse, and poten­tially fraudulent overbilling” of taxpayers.

Abortionists Hide from Ethical and Legal Scrutiny

Aside from the opportunism, Hogue’s remarks also reflect a tremendous pressure under which she must have been operating. On January 4, the House Select Panel on Infant Lives publicized its full report, which referred 15 separate entities for criminal or regulatory misconduct, for everything from the illegal procurement of aborted babies’ cells and organs to violating HIPAA laws.

The same day, the Alliance Defending Freedom and the Charlotte Lozier Institute released its fifth annual edition of “Profit. No Matter What,” which found Planned Parenthood guilty of $12.8 million in “waste, abuse, and poten­tially fraudulent overbilling” of taxpayers. “Former Planned Parenthood employees and others allege many millions more,” the report notes. 

The very next day, Speaker Paul Ryan announced that the reconciliation bill would both defund Planned Parenthood and repeal ObamaCare through the budget process, removing Democrats’ ability to filibuster either issue. Taxpayer funding, which totaled $553.7 million in 2014, accounts for 48 percent of Planned Parenthood’s total revenue.

And Chuck Schumer’s tough talk notwithstanding, Washington is gearing up to confirm another center-right justice for a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court. While the battle is sure to inflame Hogue’s donors and (further) enrich her personally, she knows the fight ultimately will prove futile — the fight to preserve America’s role as an international outlier thanks to its lax laws on late-term abortion. 

Next, Hogue will probably be fuming as hundreds of thousands of pro-life advocates gather in the nation’s capital for the 44^th annual March for Life in Washington, D.C. Surveying the endless stream of energized young people, she might have the same reaction her predecessor as president of NARAL, Nancy Keenan, did in 2010: “I just thought, my gosh, they are so young. There are so many of them, and they are so young.” 

Indeed, they are.