Abortion: A lost cause or still an issue?
As I was checking out the presidential candidates stances on abortion today I asked myself ‘why?’
Abortion is the single most divisive issue in existence today. I saw a study once that said something like over 99% of people have an opinion on it. There is no other issue that anywhere near 99% of people have an opinion on. My question to you is: does a candidate’s stance on abortion affect your vote? If so, why?
Back in “simpler times” when there were no significant wars or acts of terrorism running rampid throughout the globe it seemed that abortion was the #1 issue.
For two reasons in this next election abortion will be close to a non-issue.
First: People only care about things that affect them. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the possibility of other wars and random acts of terrorism make us feel much more insecure than someone getting an abortion. Terrorists can come and kill us at any time, someone’s abortion cannot. It’s that simple.
Second: What can the president actually do? I personally don’t support abortion, but I would support a candidate who supports abortion. Ahhhh, I can hear you all screaming from here…calm down. Think about it, President Bush is as anti-abortion and conservative as they come, and he has appointed 3 Supreme Court justices during his administration. That sounds like a recipe for change, but abortion is still legal.
Another example of how much of a non-issue this has become is Republican presidential candidate Rudy Guiliani, who announced that he supports abortion before the primary election. In past years that would have been a political death sentence! Only conservatives vote in the Republican primary! But Guiliani remains on the top of the Republican polls. I highly doubt that he will drum up support from the very conservative voters who vote in the primaries. But the fact that he said that before the primary speaks volumes of how much this issue has changed.
People’s opinions on abortion will always be decisive and consistent, but Roe v. Wade will never be overturned.
September 19th, 2007 at 2:02 pm
I agree that Roe v. Wade will never be overturned. I think abortions have there place in limited cicumstances but right now a person can have unlimited abortions just because having a baby or using a condom is inconvenient to them which is very sad.
I also have to say that this issue isn’t top on my list and the war and illegal immigration definately are having much more impact on people personally. I could vote for somebody that’s pro abortion but if they support amnesty to criminals that’s where I draw the line.
I haven’t looked into all of the candidates views on illegal immigration but do know that Hillary’s website is conspicuoulsy silent on the issue…