Who's being petty in this abortion tiff?

• In the U.S. Senate%2C Dems are filibustering an anti-human trafficking bill%2C while the GOP refuses to vote on AG nominee
• MacEachern%3A Dems are bowing to their abortion-rights overlords
• Valdez%3A Holding up the attorney general%27s confirmation is far worse

Immovable object, meet unstoppable force.

One eventually has to give. But in the U.S. Senate today, it's unclear which that will be.

Democrats are filibustering an anti-human trafficking bill after belatedly realizing it included anti-abortion language.

In response, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is refusing to bring to a vote Loretta Lynch's appointment to be the nation's first female African American attorney general.

Who is most at fault? Who needs to blink?

Editorial writers Doug MacEachern and Linda Valdez debate the issue below:

MACEACHERN: Let's stop the kabuki theater, shall we? Democrats in the Senate are standing in the way of funding an anti-human trafficking bill for one reason: Some of their most important sources of support — abortion-rights groups like NARAL and EMILY'S List — have made public-funding of abortions a line-in-the-sand issue on this bill.

They didn't just "discover" that language forbidding public abortion funding had mysteriously popped up in the bill. It was in there from the beginning.

For 37 years, language prohibiting it has been included in every relevant bill passed by Congress. To their credit, Democratic supporters of abortion rights have recognized that citizens who oppose abortion should not be forced to pay for an abortion. On command from the abortion lobby, that nod to common decency now is at an end.

VALDEZ: I fail to see how it is a "nod to common decency" to allow the religious views of one group to determine the health-care options available to another group.

We do not live in a theocracy. Federally funded programs cover medical interventions that I might find objectionable on philosophical grounds. That does not give me the right to deny these procedures to those who feel differently.

It took the Democrats far too long to take a stand against the Hyde Amendment. Congratulations on the new spine, guys! Keep it strong. Abortion is a legal medical procedure.

And let's not get too carried away with talk about the all-powerful "abortion lobby." Republicans regularly prostrate themselves before the political power of the anti-abortion rights lobby. Witness the hold the Center for Arizona Policy has on GOP state lawmakers.

MACEACHERN: At last someone on the left willing to put the public-funding cards honestly on the table. But, hang on! Theocracy?

Every national poll conducted shows a strong majority of Americans opposing public abortion funding. In the past two years, CNN and Gallup both found almost 60 percent opposed. Let's call this what it is: a radical power grab by zealots.

Republicans have responded by holding Lynch's appointment. Like it or not, this is politics. It became nasty politics when the people who launched this face-off by freezing money for human-trafficking victims now double-down on sleaze by accusing the other side of racism and sexism.

How far back did Dems push Janice Rogers Brown? The contemptible Dick Durbin twice filibustered her judicial nomination. And what about his opposition to Condoleezza Rice as secretary of State? Did any GOP senator call him a racist for those votes?

VALDEZ: I'd say holding up the confirmation of the attorney general of the United States for spite is far worse than blocking a bill because of legitimate concerns, especially when Americans recognize the GOP strategy of linking anti-choice ideas with popular measures.

What's funny is that the GOP is no fan of Eric Holder, who will remain attorney general until Lynch (or someone else) is confirmed. That gives Democrats bragging rights on this political standoff.

Whether the Democrats will use their moral high ground wisely is another question. They tend to bend more than they should. Republicans, on the other hand, have demonstrated a willingness to throw a monkey wrench in the gears of government. They won't blink.

But neither party deserves credit for showing less maturity than a roomful of toddlers.