As of 1 p.m. Monday, the day before yesterday's U.S. election, the Tea Party was working hard to secure a win for Republican U.S. Senate candidate Richard Mourdock. News junkies -and regular watchers of The Colbert Report - will know Mourdock for his rigid stance on abortion. "_ even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something that God intended to happen."
Isn't it rather presumptuous of anyone to talk so knowingly of God's will? To quote Susan B. Anthony: "I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do, because I notice it always coincides with their own desires."
Mourdock joined a handful of Republican politicians on what Stephen Colbert termed Team Rape, which also included pro-life Republican politician Dr. Scott DesJarlais who told his mistress (a patient of his at the time) to get an abortion to salvage his marriage, and Republican Todd Aikin who said this year that victims of "legitimate rape" rarely experience pregnancy because "the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down."
All I can say is I hope the good folks of Indiana are living in the 21st century and not the Middle Ages and will make sure Mourdock never holds political office - despite Mitt Romney's ringing endorsement of the medieval man.
The recent political discourse surrounding rape and abortion within the Republican ranks in the lead-up to the marathon American election has been nothing short of bizarre. Who are these "grey-faced men with $2 haircuts," as Tina Fey described Mourdock, to tell women about what rape is. Stunning really. I can only hope Romney, who has flipflopped from his previous pro-choice stance when he was governor of Massachusetts, fails to make it into 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. and make good on his promise of getting the Supreme Court to overturn Roe vs. Wade thus allowing states to set their own abortion laws.
Apparently people like Mourdock et al, who don't accept abortion in any situation, would prefer to see women of childbearing age (mothers, sisters, cousins, aunts) die in back alley abortions or develop chronic gynecological problems as is the fate of tens of thousands of women across the world.
This is a touchy issue - always will be. I can safely predict that if Romney becomes the next American president, abortion rights in Canada will become an election issue with Prime Minister Stephen Harper ultimately reneging on his promise not to re-open the debate on women's access to abortion. Harper is miles above Romney in the intellect department, but his list of broken promises is extensive. And signing a secret deal (FIPA) with a totalitarian state (China) without Parliamentary debate doesn't exactly inspire confidence in someone's "promises" of government accountability and transparency.
As I read somewhere once long ago: if you don't believe in abortion, don't have one. Yet somehow, privileged members of 49 per cent of the population who will never face such a decision still feel they should have a say in what a woman does with her body and life.
It's long past time everyone gathered their energies and resources to reduce abortions through education and affordable access to contraceptives. Paramount, however, is a women's right to choose.
On another election note - though one less emotionally charged - is the vote Tuesday on whether to legalize marijuana for adult use in Washington, Oregon and Colorado. A similar proposition was put forward in California two years ago and was narrowly defeated. It has been claimed that those who were against legalizing pot were the marijuana growers themselves - particularly in the "Emerald Triangle" of Humboldt, Mendocino and Trinity counties - who helped bankroll the No campaign. It makes sense. Why would they want to see their huge tax free profits disappear?
In an interview about Proposition 19 and Tuesday's vote, Allen St. Pierre, executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), told Mint Press News the "sellers of marijuana have joined with narks, pee testers and beer testers." Will the "gangapreneurs" have an influence on the 2012 votes in Washington, Oregon and Colorado? We'll have to wait and see. If the vote is in favour in legalization, will it signal a change north of the 49th parallel and end the futile war on drugs?
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