Eleanor Smeagol Smeal is doing it again: writing her supporters to tell them that Justice O’Connor was the fifth vote to uphold basic abortion rights:

The right to a safe, legal abortion is on the line with Harriet Miers’ nomination to fill Sandra Day O’Connor’s seat on the Supreme Court. With the O’Connor seat as the fifth vote on not only abortion, but many issues important to women and minorities, the public, especially women, deserves to know much more about Harriet Miers and her views on the issues.

Whoever fills Justice O’Connor’s seat is the crucial fifth vote.

Wrong, Ms. Smeagol. We’ve been through this before. O’Connor was not the fifth vote to uphold the basic abortion right. She was the fifth vote to uphold the precious, precious right to have your doctor kill your partially-born baby by sticking it in the skull with a pair of scissors, and sucking its brains out with a suction catheter.

Not the same thing.