Posted on 05/10/2008 10:08:41 PM PDT by cdchik123
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., faces enormous pressure from social conservatives to ignore his repeated commitment to change the GOP's platform on abortion.
"If he were to change the party platform," to account for exceptions such as rape, incest or risk to the mother's life, "I think that would be political suicide," said Tony Perkins, the president of the conservative Family Research Council, to ABC News. "I think he would be aborting his own campaign because that is such a critical issue to so many Republican voters and the Republican brand is already in trouble."
A senior Republican close to McCain told ABC News that building a more inclusive GOP is a top priority for the Arizona senator.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
The abortion platform is a meaningless distraction - every election cycle.
All the "true conservatives" hate McCain and my sit out the election...so why does this matter?
And this is precisely where Monomanical Anti-Abortion fanatics begin to go off the deep end and to offend the common sense and decency of most Americans.
Children do not have the legal right to say "no" to this situation in most cases. The parents (and you folks are among this group jwalsh) effectively force the teen child to live with the remembered trauma of rape for 9 additional months and to also suffer all the very real physical problems of pregnancy (including those unique to female teens).
You call this "principled" thinking, but in order to believe that you also must be opposed to all forms of capital punishment and indeed even the use of lethal force by law enforcement and the military.
You must be absolutely, 100 percent Ghandian in your opposition to violence, and you must apply that principle in all cases and not just abortion cases.
Do you? Are you?
That's the only moral pass you get. Anything else is naked and staggering hypocrisy.
wrong. In the death penalty, the executed has done something to deserve the sentence. The unborn child has done nothing wrong. You are the one whose cruelty is breathtaking, forcing a child go through an abortion and then live with the consequences for the rest of their life.
There is no easy answers in a bad situation, and making an abortion the easy way out is hypocracy, not sticking to your principles when things get tough.
I’m with you, I believe those exceptions are reasonable, moral and ethical.
Elevating the status of a one-week or one-month old fetus above that of a raped teenage girl is just sick, IMO.
The girl should be released from the trauma and torment ASAP.
Whatever “principle” you’re applying here is not easily grasped.
John McCain was nominated by Moderates and Democrats crossing over. I am at home on this site because, like the owner, I support Conservatives, but not all Republicans. John McCain is the one that would be more at home on DU. That’s where his friends and base hang out.
If he were to change the party platform, to account for exceptions such as rape, incest or risk to the mothers life, I think that would be...
Actually pretty smart since thats about where the nation is at mentally.
Actually, it's not. For two reasons:
1. Doing so would absolutely expunge many social conservatives from the GOP base, while pissing off even more conservatives of all stripes.
2. We're getting very, very close to achieving what you say is "where the nation is at mentally". But, if you want to get there, you're not going to get there by compromising even before any negotiations have begun.
Everybody should consider this. A compromise in favor of "except in case of rape, incest or risk to the mother's life" is certainly an improvement on the current state of abortion policy and constitutes important incremental progress toward the long-term goal.
And we're not ever going to get even that far if the party doesn't continue to stand foursquare for its current platform.
If necessary to make progress toward achieving the aim, compromise later -- NOT now.
If McCain could guarantee that he could get it done -- with the exceptions -- it would be a deal worth considering. But he can't guarantee this, so it would be a stupid move on his part.
Not that he isn't capable of making one...
McCain has not been consistent wrt Roe v. Wade either:
McCain said, Id love to see a point where Roe vs. Wade is irrelevant, and could be repealed because abortion is no longer necessary. But certainly in the short term, or even the long term, I would not support repeal of Roe vs. Wade, which would then force women in America to [undergo] illegal and dangerous operations. A spokesman said that McCain has a 17-year voting record of supporting efforts to overturn Roe vs. Wade. He does that currently, and will continue to do that as president. McCain said he thought Roe v. Wade should be overturned and said he would support exceptions to a ban on abortion in cases of rape, incest, and when the mothers life is in danger.
(Source: Boston Globe, p. A11 Jan 22, 2000)
Source: Ron Fournier, Associated Press Aug 24, 1999
McCain is an idiot.
Thank you, you nailed it.
If that was my daughter any trace of the perp would be expunged immediately.
....and I agree that in light of anti-abortion absolutism your support of the death penalty is rank hypocrisy.
It’s is you anti-Republicans who are all doom and gloom saying that if McCain is elected and he passes amnesty that the country will be destroyed.
“1. Doing so would absolutely expunge many social conservatives from the GOP base”
I consider myself a social conservative (among other things) and yet I do believe that exceptions do and should exist.
“2. We’re getting very, very close to achieving what you say is “where the nation is at mentally”. But, if you want to get there, you’re not going to get there by compromising even before any negotiations have begun.”
I understand where you are coming from, first rule of negotiation (in my mind) is always demand that which sounds extreme so that when you do compromise you actually wind up getting something that is acceptable to most thinking people.
God BLESS America, McCain 2008
In the case of rape, the pregnancy can be terminated in the first week (because the victim knows she might have been impregnated). This can be taken care of when the woman is treated for the sexual assault. Very few people will argue that a cluster of a few cells is capable of feeling any pain or trauma from being aborted.
Barack Obama, on the other hand, has no trouble with tossing aside late-term fetuses that survive the abortion process to die without food, water, or medical care. See what Jill Stanek has to say about him and Illinois' Born Alive Infants Protection Act.
” So much for the McCainiacs saying he is solidly Pro-Life. “
Oh, you those just signed up SHreepers? Yeah, I’ve seen their knee prints on a few threads.
Although I can agree that there is no moral upside to prolonging the rape or incest victim's suffering any more than is necessary, there is also no moral upside whatsoever to the deliberate killing of an innocent human being, and that's exactly what abortion does. I also agree that pregnancy and childbirth is an awful experience to make a young victim of rape or incest go through. But OTOH, if killing another innocent human being is the price for the young mother's avoidance of suffering, her mental and physical pain is just one more consequence of the rapist's crime and should be the primary factor that is considered during the sentencing phase of the rapist's trial.
IMO death by lethal injection is the appropriate penalty for forcible rape or incest that involves a victim under 16 years of age, or a victim of any age who is mentally handicapped. According to St. Paul's epistle to the Christians at Rome, God established human government for the good of mankind and gave it authority to punish lawbreakers with penalties up to and including death. There is nothing immoral, cruel, or un-Christian about the state executing duly tried and convicted perpetrators of capital crimes, and IMO forcible rape or incest involving a child or mentally handicapped victim definitely qualifies as a capitol crime.
“How would statutory rape make it different in your opinion?”
Rape is a violent crime and a physical assault. Statutory rape is a statutory crime and not a violent assault. Statutory rape is consensual, though not necessary legally consensual.
Actually this is only hollow spun propaganda designed to make less politically informed conservatives and conservative minded independents think that it is finally okay to come out and support their manchurian candidate not realizing it is for the most part just spin, fabrication, distortion and even outright lies in some instances. Expect them to step up that program of deception and lies as we get closer to the election.
Pain and trauma are not reasons why I believe that aborting a zygote is an offense under God's laws. My reason is that I believe a human zygote is endowed by God with a soul at the moment of conception, and therefore becomes a living human being at that point in his or her physical growth and development that will eventually culminate in the birth of an infant human. The zygote proves that it's alive by continuing to grow new human tissue, and can be proved to be human by it's DNA, therefore I am convinced that it is a living human being with a living human soul from the moment of conception.
I believe that once the sanctity of human life is deemed to be irrelevant by a large majority of the population the most basic underpinnings of civilization will begin to crumble, and then the law of survival of the fittest that is now only observed in the animal kingdom will soon become the only law that matters to most people. If that is to be the future of America I want no part in it or of it, and considering my age (70) I doubt that I will.
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