Abortion and Republicanism

Richard D. Ferrier, newly elected chairman of Ventura County Republican Central Committee, promises to lead the crusade against abortion and believes “it should be criminalized.”

I am a 64-year-old woman, married to my beloved husband for 47 years, mother, grandmother and of the Christian faith, who has never desired an abortion and never felt the need to have an abortion. However, if I had ever found myself in an untenable situation where the only solution would be to have an abortion, I would want to be able to have one legally and in complete privacy. Ashamed? No, I believe it is nobody’s business but my own.

Women continue to be the ones carrying the babies, bearing them and raising them. Until all men shoulder the responsibility that goes with conceiving a child, I do not believe it is a man’s prerogative to decree what women must do. No, I do not believe that abortion should be a primary method of birth control. I believe it should be a last resort, but a last resort it should be.

Being a lifelong Republican who supports the philosophy of Republicanism, I cannot understand why this has become a political issue. The foundation of the Republican Party is non-interference by the government in people’s private lives, and no one should have the right to intervene in private matters. This is the fundamental truth of the Republican Party.

I believe that if people want to band together and make their platform an anti-abortion platform, then they should do so. But they should call themselves by a name other than Republican.

DOROTHY M. JACOBSON, Somis