Georgia’s worrisome intramural fight over abortion
There’s one bit of unfinished business from the GOP primary for governor. And, no, I don’t mean a public kiss-and-make-up session between Nathan Deal and Karen Handel.
I worry that the long-term health of the pro-life movement in Georgia may have taken a self-inflicted hit during this primary, because of the words and tactics of Georgia Right to Life.
The most prominent anti-abortion group in a red state, GRTL issues endorsements during each election cycle that Republican candidates covet. High among its criteria is a stipulation that candidates agree to only one exception to a ban on abortions: when the life of the mother is in danger.
GRTL defends its stance as “the 21st-century demands of being pro-life,” a tacit acknowledgment that one exception hasn’t always been the rule. For decades after the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision, many pro-life groups allowed for two additional cases: pregnancies resulting from rape or incest.
It was largely over these two exceptions that GRTL and Handel, the only GOP gubernatorial candidate not to get the group’s endorsement, disagree. But it was no light disagreement.
After Handel received a late endorsement from Sarah Palin, GRTL lashed out: One day before the primary, the group sent out a robo-call to voters describing Handel as “extremely liberal” on abortion.
That’s when I began to worry.
I understand that intellectual consistency dictates that the unborn’s right to life isn’t lessened by the circumstances of conception. I understand that allowing abortion in the case of a rape but not in most others could lead to an explosion in the number of rape claims, and a ban-enforcement nightmare.
But I also understand that people don’t always like to be intellectually consistent. And, more to the point, we are eons away, in public-policy years, from reaching a point where this kind of debate can be more than just theoretical.
The fact is that abortion under any circumstance remains legal in this country — and that, as GRTL itself notes, more than 99 percent of U.S. abortions don’t involve rape or incest. Even a ban on partial-birth abortions proved highly contentious not that long ago.
There’s reason for hope. Gallup, which tracks U.S. attitudes toward abortion over time, found last year for the first time that more Americans call themselves pro-life rather than pro-choice — reversing a 10-percentage-point deficit as recently as 2006, and a 23-point gap just 15 years ago. There were gains in all age groups.
But the number of Americans who believe abortion should be legal in some circumstances remained a majority of 54 percent — almost unchanged from the years immediately following Roe. It’s unlikely that most of them favor just one exception rather than the more commonly stated three.
As the left has proved over the years, a gradual approach to big policy changes is usually more successful than a one-fell-swoop strategy.
Withholding an endorsement is one thing. But there’s an important difference between that and an all-out attack on a three-exceptions candidate as “extremely liberal.” The latter is an unlikely way to build and sustain the momentum in public opinion that will be essential to any lasting change in the law.
It’s a bit like Charlie Brown asking Lucy to place the football farther from the goal posts. To the degree that this rigidity makes it harder to realize slow but steady pro-life progress, it’s an unconscionable mistake.
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215 comments Add your comment
Peter
August 30th, 2010
9:56 am
Hey williebkind ……when you mix a Religious message with politics…….. who cares.
Kind of like talking about the Easter Bunny and Politics.
No different.
Peter
August 30th, 2010
9:58 am
Hey LizBeth….which laws of people are you talking about that gets in the way of love and caring ?
No More Progressives!
August 30th, 2010
10:02 am
Memo to Scammer:
Republic Rules – The U.S.A. is a great representative republic.
http://www.republicrules.com/
We’re not a Democracy (another word for mob rule); we’ve never been a Democracy, and with luck, we’ll never be a Democracy.
For those of you dolts that skipped middle school civics, a Democracy is when 50% of the electorate plus one votes on an issue, and it becomes law.
Why is the world do you think they call it the House of Representatives?
AmVet
August 30th, 2010
10:17 am
No More, when challenged and/or bested you become little more than a childish insulter. But I’m sure, I’m not the first here to either note nor comment on that characteristic.
Pout away, but it does not change the fact that the United States of America is a representative democracy.
Hell, the definition right out of the dictionary alone proves you are wrong – a type of democracy in which the citizens delegate authority to elected representatives.
Representative democracy is a form of democracy in which the people allow others to represent them in the various forms of democratic process and are not necessarily directly involved in any of the processes of legislation or lawmaking. This form of democracy is found at the federal level of the United States (US).
And I know full well, that you are a much more credible source that the Encyclopedia Brittanica, but hey, I’m grasping at straws here! (LOL)
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/498478/representative-democracy
So Grand Forks, you’re back to being LA again?
How hysterical.
What next? whodat again? Or CommieAJC again?
Who, you swore up and down you never were. As though your “style’ is not unmistakable?
I’ll check back in (much?) later to see how just much venom and vitriol ensues from you two paragons of puerile immaturity…
LizBeth
August 30th, 2010
10:36 am
Dear Peter,
In a just society, laws are designed so that they grow economy, provide equitable justice for both the rich and poor, respect differences, promote peaceful resolutions, and grow people into citizens who are spiritual and thoughtful. We have a mission statement for this country that promotes this ideal. But because we respect differences, we also allow those who would be powerful before just, who would rather fight than settle, who antagonize, and who live out their egos and rage to have just as much say as anyone else in this country. And power is an attractive message. Of course, it attracts followers through well-positioned fearmongering, whether it be fear of violence, fear of theft, or fear of hell.
The latter, which allows laws to based upon power, fear, and egos, may be the message of Pharisees, but isn’t the message of Jesus.
mrs. w.
August 30th, 2010
10:39 am
Midtown: Shame on your mother. Abortion is not meant to be a form of birth control and that is what she used it for. It is people like her who give the pro-lifers their platform and rightly so in this instance.
No More Progressives!
August 30th, 2010
10:45 am
Scammer, I bet that when you were in the Peace Corps, even you said the Pleadge of Allgeiance.
Remeber the part ….”and to the Republic, for which it stands…….”
Me getting a little testy?
I bested you the other day hands down, and your response was to refer to me “and my jerk-off friends…..”
Keep making it up, Scammer. It maked for good entertainment.
Why the Founders Created a Representative Republic
http://us-elections.suite101.com/article.cfm/is_the_united_states_a_democracy
Educate yourself. Public schools couldn’t.
AmVet
August 30th, 2010
11:15 am
Keep making it up, Scammer.
No More, you are utterly hopeless. You pretend to be completely incapable of reading and comprehending standard written English from a variety of credible sources.
Do you labor under the misconception that the other bloggers here, as well as the host, aren’t reading this embarrassing display of yours and are likely laughing at you?
And just how much proof is never enough for you?
How many prestigious and recognized sources must you irrationally ignore to hang onto your hyper-partisan demagoguery and rhetoric?
What would it *ever* take for you to realize you are simply incorrect?
I’ve provided five different sources that absolutely corroborate this widely known fact and NONE of them meet your “exacting” standards do they?
I could provide a dozen more and it still wouldn’t put a dent in that thick head of yours.
Do you even own a dictionary? Have you the foggiest idea of how to do basic research?
The Unites States of America is a representative democracy.
Are you moving your lips while you read this?
But the best news is that it is no skin off anybody’s nose here, including mine, that you remain proudly ignorant, totally specious and delusionally intransigent.
BTW, since you’re so hung up on my military service, which branch and when did you serve?
Support the Troops…
Peter
August 30th, 2010
11:24 am
Well LizBeth…that is an interesting statement but skirts the question…….
You are not mentioning any laws, you are just avoiding the topic of which laws get in the way of loving or caring.
LA
August 30th, 2010
11:31 am
“No More, when challenged and/or bested you become little more than a childish insulter.”
Pot meet kettle.
“Who, you swore up and down you never were. As though your “style’ is not unmistakable?”
Yeah, that’s because I wanted to irritate the snot out of you. IT WORKED! You were so worked up, your depends had to be changed on an hourly basis.
Like I used to say, go sell stupid somewhere else.
LA
August 30th, 2010
11:32 am
“I’ll check back in (much?) later to see how just much venom and vitriol ensues from you two paragons of puerile immaturity…”
Says the guy who calls other people names on Bookman’s blog. Keep on, BedWet.
LA
August 30th, 2010
11:33 am
“Do you labor under the misconception that the other bloggers here, as well as the host, aren’t reading this embarrassing display of yours and are likely laughing at you?”
BedWet, this ain’t Bookman’s fantasy blog here.
LA
August 30th, 2010
11:34 am
“The Unites States of America is a representative democracy.”
And where does it say that in the US Constitution or any other document, BedWet?
Then again, you’re a draft dodger.
No More Progressives!
August 30th, 2010
12:08 pm
Scammer, you can go to CVS or Eckerds and get an over-the-counter remedy for that yeast infection.
There’s just no need to take it out on everybody else that reads your bilge.
No More Progressives!
August 30th, 2010
12:48 pm
BTW, since you’re so hung up on my military service, which branch and when did you serve?
I did not serve, Scammer. I’m an historian.
But then, I never implied that I did.