Pro-Choice Republicans Challenge Ferguson
Assemblyman Gil Ferguson is dead wrong. He is a radical, outside the mainstream. The pro-choice position is a position which should be supported by all Republicans. Republicans claim to believe in individual rights and believe that government should stay out of the private lives of all citizens, don’t they?
Ferguson’s paranoia tells him that the pro-choice effort in Orange County is to elect “moderate” (his term) Republicans who will vote with the Democratic legislative leadership on “key issues.” No, Mr. Ferguson, the “key issue” is that the decision to continue an unwanted pregnancy is the woman’s decision or choice, not a government decision and not my decision. It is none of my business what a woman decides.
As a retired businessman and grandfather who has been active in pro-choice efforts and as a member of the National Abortion Rights Action League and Pro-Choice Orange County for many years, I must tell Mr. Ferguson that I have never heard any woman in those organizations, or any woman, ever say that she is “pro-abortion.”
Mr. Ferguson, you know that is a deliberate distortion by you and others who as politicians would deny a woman the right to privacy and a choice in the most personal aspect in a woman’s life. Believing in a right to choose is not being “pro-abortion.”
What most of us in the pro-choice community would like to see is fewer (or no) unwanted pregnancies. That would come from better sex education in our schools, increased government funding for family planning and support for nonprofit organizations like Planned Parenthood, which helps thousands of women avoid unwanted pregnancies. These are the best ways to reduce the number of abortions.
In short, it is fundamentally un-American for politicians like Ferguson to try to take away and/or interfere with the right to privacy and woman’s right to choose. And if Republicans really do believe in individual rights and getting government out of our private lives, it is also un-Republican to be anti-choice.
RICHARD KREILE, Santa Ana
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