Meet the Candidates
Listening to Meet the Press from this past Sunday with Senators George Allen and Joe Biden. Allen sound a lot like Kerry. He rattles of facts and figures to support focus group positions on policy, caught between a middle of the road populace and a far right base (far left for Kerry). He raises an interesting issue when asked about South Dakota’s recent legislation banning abortion except to save the life of the mother (on a side note - if the mother is going to spend the rest of her life raising a child she doesn’t want or can’t raise, does aborting that embryo count as saving her life?).
Does the decision to abort a pregnancy (or even to prevent one) belong to the mother, her family, doctor, community, state government or the federal government? Allen says it’s a state issue. Pro-choice groups say it’s the mother’s call. Pro-life supporters seem to think that they get to say what any other mother may do with regards to abortion. That last one is a particularly strange position because their religion (unless the mother is part of their community) isn’t on the list. Quinn posted on Ambiguous on February 15th:
How far is anti-abortion laws from laws against women doing things that might cause miscarriage?
Now ask yourself this, who gets to decide the laws governing what you can and cannot do to your own body? The people of South Dakota? The church-affiliated lobbyists? Or is it between you, your doctor and your family?
Back to the candidates, I’m looking more into Joe Biden. He’s not afraid to call the administration out as not competent to do their job. That’s something more and more people on all sides of the political spectrum are finally coming to realize.