"Don't take it personally"? There isn't any other way to take it!!

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Enforcing morality has no place in politics
By DAvid Cook, April 16, 2013

In a recent speech, Wisconsin's Rep. Paul Ryan told a right-to-life audience that he dreamed of an America one day in which no one would even think of having an abortion. This sort of nonsense is what such audiences pay to hear from their right-to-life politicians.

Abortion is, of course, a moral issue and therefore one not to be taken lightly or carelessly. By the same token, morality is not the black-and-white understanding that the Paul Ryans of politics take it to be. As such, if they are unable to persuade all women and their families to choose never to think about, let alone have an abortion, they must resort to force to remove that choice. Abortions, however, would still be performed, just not safe and legal ones.

As authoritarian types with a line-in-the-sand morality, the GOP is a perfect fit for the right-to-lifers, and they are using the party to enforce their morality in more and more states where they have helped Republican politicians to gain complete power. Though Wisconsin is one of those states, we have so far been spared the draconian legislation that has been passed in North Dakota, Mississippi, Virginia and Arkansas. But be on guard: We know our governor is a dedicated right-to-lifer.

New York Times columnist Bill Keller has shared readers’ experiences around abortion through many letters he has received. Ultimately, Keller says, "It's personal." He writes: "No outsider, however certain of his or her righteousness, can adequately appreciate the tides of love and anguish that wash over a family in this kind of crisis. So, yes, I believe it is a woman's choice to make, with her partner, her doctor, her parents, her minister or anyone else she chooses to invite into the decision."

This would not include the folks who shriek at women entering health clinics or the governors and legislators in state governments. At least 30 states are fully controlled by the Republican Party since 2010. The governors and legislators are almost unanimously right-to-life zealots.

Women do not count in their thinking, so shutting down and defunding their health clinics just because they provide abortion services leaves women, especially poor women, without reproductive health care, especially contraception. Most of these politicians happen to be men. Women not having a choice over their lives, in the view of these men, is just the way it should be.

Hey, don't take it personally!
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