{"id":212,"date":"2010-10-07T13:54:55","date_gmt":"2010-10-07T13:54:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev.ruudmedia.com\/gsc\/?p=212"},"modified":"2017-12-06T14:28:31","modified_gmt":"2017-12-06T14:28:31","slug":"abortion-debate-and-fiorinas-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/garrysouthconsulting.com\/abortion-debate-and-fiorinas-problem\/","title":{"rendered":"Abortion Debate and Fiorina\u2019s Problem"},"content":{"rendered":"

I<\/span>n last week\u2019s radio debate between Sen. Barbara Boxer and her opponent,\u00a0deposed Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, the latter went to great lengths to slap some rouge on her extremist position on a woman\u2019s right to choose.<\/p>\n

As could be seen in the videotape of Fiorina in the Pasadena studio, she furrowed her brow, puckered up and declared herself shocked at what she called Boxer\u2019s \u201cmischaracterization\u201d of Fiorina\u2019s record on the subject.<\/p>\n

Nothing was more \u201cunconscionable than the senator\u2019s continued assertion that I support the criminalization of abortion,\u201d Fiorina thundered, fairly\u00a0spitting out the words.\u00a0 \u201cShe knows very well that is not true.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the lady doth protest too much, methinks. \u00a0Fiorina said publicly during the GOP Senate primary that she \u201cabsolutely would vote to overturn Roe v. Wade,\u201d and has bragged about her endorsements from The National Right to Life Committee, California Pro-Life Council and Sarah Palin, herself an avid anti-choice activist.\u00a0 \u201cIn fact, I am proudly pro-life,\u201d she proclaimed on conservative commentator Dennis Prager\u2019s radio show in May.<\/p>\n

Either Fiorina is being thick or disingenuous when she asserts that there is a distinction between seeking to overturn Roe v. Wade and re-criminalizing abortion.\u00a0 Fifteen states currently have unenforceable, near-total criminal bans on abortion, and four more have bans that would be triggered if Roe v. Wade were overturned.\u00a0 If the protection of Roe v. Wade goes away, all those provisions go into effect.<\/p>\n

Webster\u2019s defines the word \u201ccriminal\u201d as \u201cinvolving or being a crime.\u201d \u00a0If abortion is made illegal, then having one is a crime, pure and simple. \u00a0If you want to ban abortions, you are seeking to criminalize the act of abortion, period.\u00a0 \u00a0Fiorina can\u2019t have it both ways.<\/p>\n

Luckily, here in California, we have a woman\u2019s right to choose ensconced in our constitution and our statutes, so an overturn of Roe v. Wade would not unduly affect the women of this state.\u00a0 And, we have a long history of electing pro-choice public officials of both parties who uphold a woman\u2019s right to choose.<\/p>\n

California has not had a U.S. senator of either party who opposed abortion since George Murphy, who served from 1965-71.\u00a0 \u00a0Pete Wilson, who was a GOP senator from 1983-91, was a longtime defender of a woman\u2019s right to choose.\u00a0 \u00a0Even his predecessor, Republican S.I. Hayakawa, although one of the most conservative members of the Senate, upheld a woman\u2019s right to choose as a matter of freedom and conscience.<\/p>\n

In fact, it is perhaps little remembered today, probably particularly by anti-choice zealots like Fiorina, that Hayakawa threatened to hold up President Reagan\u2019s nomination of C. Everett Koop as surgeon general in 1981 if Koop did not clarify that his personal opposition to abortion would not translate into using his official status as an anti-choice crusader.<\/p>\n

Fiorina not only doesn\u2019t fit the mold of our two previous GOP senators on this issue, she is wildly afoul of California voters on the matter as well. \u00a0This is one of the most pro-choice states in America, and the issue of abortion alone is sufficient to sink Fiorina.\u00a0 The last anti-abortion candidate to win a top-of-the-ticket statewide race in California was Gov. George Deukmejian running for reelection in 1986.<\/p>\n

The respected Field Poll in July found that 71 percent of California voters either favor no changes to the state\u2019s current liberal abortion laws or want to make abortions easier to obtain.\u00a0 The same 71 percent endorsed Roe v. Wade itself.\u00a0 Fully 75 percent of independents, of which Fiorina must win a majority to beat Boxer, favor making no changes to the law or allowing easier access to abortion.\u00a0 Fiorina\u2019s position is even out of sync with her own party.\u00a0 Among registered Republicans, only 40 percent want to make abortion harder to come by.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In last week\u2019s radio debate between Sen. Barbara Boxer and her opponent,\u00a0deposed Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, the latter went to great lengths to slap some rouge on her extremist position on a woman\u2019s right to choose. As could be seen in the videotape of Fiorina in the Pasadena studio, she furrowed her brow, puckered […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/garrysouthconsulting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/garrysouthconsulting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/garrysouthconsulting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/garrysouthconsulting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/garrysouthconsulting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/garrysouthconsulting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":251,"href":"https:\/\/garrysouthconsulting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212\/revisions\/251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/garrysouthconsulting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/garrysouthconsulting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/garrysouthconsulting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}