Pro-Choice Republicans Challenge Ferguson
As a pro-choice Republican, I think the rigid anti-choice position espoused by Gil Ferguson is really what’s dividing the Republican Party today. Mr. Ferguson seems to forget that pro-choice does not mean pro-abortion, and it is choice that women are seeking to preserve.
His statements indicate that he is out of step with a majority of Republicans. The Republican Party’s own poll (according to Newsweek, May 4) showed that 78% of Republican primary voters in Orange County are pro-choice. Pro-choice is the position most consistent with the conservative Republican philosophy of limiting government interference in personal decisions. Former Arizona Sen. Barry Goldwater, “Mr. Conservative,” understands this and presently serves on the Advisory Board of the National Coalition of Republicans for Choice.
Republican pro-choice activists are trying to make their party reflect the will of the majority and remove the anti-choice statement from the party platform. Such efforts, if successful, can only strengthen and broaden the party in the 1990s and aid in the election of responsible Republican candidates.
JOHN CAMPBELL, Corona del Mar
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