Politics of Abortion

Gov. Deukmejian’s view that abortion is primarily a moral rather than a political issue is absolutely correct. His attempts to depoliticize it are wrong, because the people who made the issue of abortion a political one were those who passed statutes that made abortion illegal in the first place.

In Roe vs. Wade, the U.S. Supreme Court correctly placed the issue of abortion back in the arena of the individual medical and moral choices made by women in consultation with their doctors. Since then, people like the governor who favor restrictions by the state and federal government on abortion, are the ones who are really keeping the issue political. People who blockade clinics that provide health care services to women--including but certainly not limited to abortion--also help to keep the issue political, because they drain police services and clog the courts, all of which costs taxpayers outrageous amounts of their dollars.

If the governor wants to depoliticize the issue, he should back the maintenance of the Roe decision, he should back out of people’s bedrooms and stop interfering with an essentially moral and medical decision-making process.

JAN B. TUCKER

Public Relations Director

San Fernando Valley Chapter

National Organization for Women