GOP and Abortion

* Once again, pro-lifers are being told to calm down and to concentrate on the central issues on which Republicans can unite (Column Right, June 29). James Pinkerton thinks that “abortion is not a winner for the GOP” and that the values articulated by the Christian Coalition “will be used to reshape the GOP.”

The GOP doesn’t need much reshaping, it already is officially pro-life. Pinkerton forgets where all our rights and privileges come from. The rights to property, free speech, religion, liberty, etc., are great, but what roots them? It is the right to life. Pro-lifers, in union with science and a philosophy rooted in human nature, acknowledge that at conception, the human person is present. Therefore, this person and his rights must be protected. What good are all the other rights if we forgo the right to life?

Abortion can and should be a winner for the GOP. How we treat the defenseless is a mark of our character. It is a fight that blacks went through with slavery. Life is not negotiable and neither are the passions and principles of the pro-life Republican.

WILLIAM PERALES

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