Gastinger hits the nail on the pro-life (and pro-choice) head

A nice letter-to-the-editor in the C-J...

I'm not sure whether he was responding to a pro-life comment or only sees the pro-choice critique of the pro-life position. In any case, the pro-choice critique is equivalent and worth a look...

Politics 101 is to keep your base in place. Republicans' recent attack on a woman's reproductive rights is purely politics. For six years of George W. Bush's administration Republicans held both houses of Congress and conservative sway on the Supreme Court, yet little or no effort was made toward the abolition of abortion. The reason is that many of those who strongly oppose abortion are single-issue voters, and if you remove that issue from the agenda you will lose a large voting bloc from your base. The only time Republicans make strong efforts towards outlawing abortions is when they know they have no chance of getting them through the Senate or retaining a strong enough majority to get past a presidential veto. Class dismissed.

ROBERT GASTINGER

Clarksville, Ind. 47129

The same can be said of those who are avidly "pro-choice" on abortion. I suspect that there are fewer single-issue voters in that category, but they are not an insignificant number either.

This is reminiscent, more broadly, of evangelicals voting for the GOP; African-Americans for the Dems; and a variety of other single-issue or relatively "extreme" voters.

This is probably why the GOP didn't work to get rid of Planned Parenthood funding until 2007, after they'd lost the 2006 election (a point I raised against my GOP opponent in the campaign).

Finally, here is a terrific/provocative essay on why the pro-life position might have found-- and still might find-- a more comfortable home in the Democratic party.