# Republicans and Abortions **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [October 24, 2018, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-and-abortions/823411 "2018-10-24T01:33:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2018, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-and-abortions/823411/41 "2018-10-24T14:51:26Z")
> [@EscAlaMike](#): > > Because it’s what their pastors tell them. > > Back when abortion was strictly a Catholic issue, this wasn’t the case. Abortion just fit in with the entire Catholic moral framework and was not a stand-alone issue. > > Sometime after Roe v Wade, evangelicals also became anti-abortion (not sure how or why), but they never adopted the rest of the Catholic moral framework, and they pretty much hijacked (and polluted, IMO) the whole movement. Because it is about suppressing women’s sexuality, not being pro-life. In 2012 Virginian Republicans has proposed a law that would have required women seeking an abortion to undergo a medically unnecessary trans-vaginal ultrasound. They dropped the provision when it received national attention, but their intent was clear: women seeking abortions were to undergo government mandated probing of their vaginas for no medical reason. It was about sexually humiliating women so they would fall in line. Sexual humiliation and assault is a common tactic in repressive regimes. You can bet that you will see more of these kinds of tactics designed to sexually humiliate and intimidate women from these pro-lifers in the near future. ---
**Author:** ![Cheesesteak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheesesteak/32/3694_2.png) [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2018, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-and-abortions/823411/42 "2018-10-24T14:53:56Z")
> [@EscAlaMike](#): > > In defense of pro-lifers, many of them do get involved. Yes, but not nearly as involved enough to square with their stated view of the issue. The stated view is that a half million babies are murdered every year, but it’s not an issue worth “going to war” over. If a half million murdered children isn’t worth going to war over, what is? ---
**Author:** ![EscAlaMike](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/escalamike/32/4177_2.png) [@EscAlaMike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EscAlaMike)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2018, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-and-abortions/823411/43 "2018-10-24T14:59:18Z")
> [@Cheesesteak](#): > > Yes, but not nearly as involved enough to square with their stated view of the issue. > > The stated view is that a half million babies are murdered every year, but it’s not an issue worth “going to war” over. If a half million murdered children isn’t worth going to war over, what is? So the solution to death is more death? Who are you going to fight and kill in this supposed war? ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2018, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-and-abortions/823411/44 "2018-10-24T15:01:30Z")
> [@EscAlaMike](#): > > In defense of pro-lifers, many of them do get involved. There are pregnancy resource centers all over the place that attempt to provide alternatives to abortion and assist pregnant women in all kinds of different ways. > > It’s really not fair to say that pro-lifers don’t do anything but vote. They’re pro-_fetus_. They fight like hell against things like SNAP, WIC, family leave(for peons), daycare in the workplace, etc. [Their views](https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/001/046/844/aa1.jpg) in a nutshell ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2018, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-and-abortions/823411/45 "2018-10-24T15:05:10Z")
Non religious fanatic conservatives only care about banning Abortions for poor people. Wealthy white men will always be able to get a safe abortion for their wives, daughters and mistresses. It is the poor and middle class that will die or be injured from back alley abortions. And yeah they used abortion as a carrot to keep the religious right voting for the GOP but now the lunatics have taken over the asylum and abortion will be banned on a federal level. Well, it will no longer be protected via the courts once a case winds its way to this new Supreme Court. The Dems can block new laws in the Senate and if they take the house back stop new laws from passing but the protects of Roe vs. Wade will be gone. ---
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8dc957/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2018, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-and-abortions/823411/46 "2018-10-24T15:15:02Z")
> [@Cheesesteak](#): > > Yes, but not nearly as involved enough to square with their stated view of the issue. > > The stated view is that a half million babies are murdered every year, but it’s not an issue worth “going to war” over. If a half million murdered children isn’t worth going to war over, what is? So, if I believe abortion is murder, I should support laws that incarcerate women that have them. If I believe meat is murder, should I lobby for laws to incarcerate slaughterhouse workers? ---
**Author:** ![Cheesesteak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheesesteak/32/3694_2.png) [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2018, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-and-abortions/823411/47 "2018-10-24T15:23:57Z")
> [@EscAlaMike](#): > > So the solution to death is more death? Who are you going to fight and kill in this supposed war? The word “war” can have both figurative and literal uses. In the figurative sense, going to war would recognize that the government approved killing of millions of defenseless children is the single greatest crisis our nation has faced since the Civil War. In the literal sense, there are people killing a half million children every year, openly and legally. There has to be more one can do to stop it than open a “Maybe you don’t have to murder your child” resource center next to the “We’ll kill your baby for money” murder emporium. ---
**Author:** ![Cheesesteak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheesesteak/32/3694_2.png) [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2018, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-and-abortions/823411/48 "2018-10-24T15:25:06Z")
> [@Two\_Many\_Cats](#): > > So, if I believe abortion is murder, I should support laws that incarcerate women that have them. Do you believe murderers should be punished? How about those who hire contract killers? ---
**Author:** ![Icarus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icarus/32/72_2.png) [@Icarus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icarus)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2018, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-and-abortions/823411/49 "2018-10-24T15:28:19Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > Most anti-abortion types see pregnancy as a “temporary minor convenience” and think a woman should be able to hand a newborn child over to adoption like a sack of laundry. > > And they are in favor of adoption until the word “gay” is put in front of it. Then it’s “child abuse.” > > And if don’t think the anti-abortion crowd thinks [The only moral abortion is my abortion](http://www.prochoiceactionnetwork-canada.org/articles/anti-tales.shtml), you are wrong. This is what y’all are missing in this whole argument. It’s all about those OTHER people getting abortions. It’s identity politics at it’s base. In the Pro-Life crowd they’re primarily White Evangelical Christians, and they sure as H-E-Double Toothpicks are not talking about their own women when they are screaming about abortions, 'cause they got morals, dontchaknow. But those OTHER women with their loose morals get preggers and it’s off to Planned Parenthood they go! One of our nice girls gets messed up? Well, now, that’s an entirely different story. The kids just got a little rambunctious. They’ll do the right thing, I’m sure. ---
**Author:** ![EscAlaMike](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/escalamike/32/4177_2.png) [@EscAlaMike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EscAlaMike)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2018, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-and-abortions/823411/50 "2018-10-24T15:32:08Z")
> [@Cheesesteak](#): > > The word “war” can have both figurative and literal uses. > > In the figurative sense, going to war would recognize that the government approved killing of millions of defenseless children is the single greatest crisis our nation has faced since the Civil War. It is a great tragedy, but abortion is only a _symptom_ of a deeper societal problem. You can enact the most draconian anti-abortion laws the world has ever seen, and you might eliminate abortion completely, but you have not fixed the root problem. > [@Cheesesteak](#): > > In the literal sense, there are people killing a half million children every year, openly and legally. There has to be more one can do to stop it than open a “Maybe you don’t have to murder your child” resource center next to the “We’ll kill your baby for money” murder emporium. Many people have used violence. Abortion clinics have been bombed. Do you have respect for these people? ---
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2018, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-and-abortions/823411/51 "2018-10-24T15:34:52Z")
> [@EscAlaMike](#): > > Sometime after Roe v Wade, evangelicals also became anti-abortion (not sure how or why) I ran across this article a couple of days ago (maybe via a link provided by a fellow Doper?) Although it’s four years old, it puts forth an interesting theory as to how the Religious Right came to be, and how it co-opted the abortion issue as a rallying point for the evangelicals and fundamentalists. [The Real Origins of the Religious Right](https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/05/religious-right-real-origins-107133) ---
**Author:** ![EscAlaMike](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/escalamike/32/4177_2.png) [@EscAlaMike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EscAlaMike)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2018, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-and-abortions/823411/52 "2018-10-24T15:38:45Z")
**Railer13** , thanks I’ll check it out. ---
**Author:** ![Cheesesteak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheesesteak/32/3694_2.png) [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2018, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-and-abortions/823411/53 "2018-10-24T15:59:49Z")
> [@EscAlaMike](#): > > Many people have used violence. Abortion clinics have been bombed. Do you have respect for these people? I believe their world-view is completely wrong. However, their actions are consistent with their world-view. It’s like that guy who stormed into the Pizza place looking for Hillary Clinton’s child sex dungeon. Yes, he’s a deluded fool. However, after I put on my Empathy Hat, he is also a person who drove 6 hours and mounted an armed assault on a restaurant to save children from being abused. Do I admire/respect him? No, because he is completely, utterly wrong and put people in danger. But I can empathize, I can understand why he did what he did, and believe that in his own mind, he was a hero trying to save children. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2018, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-and-abortions/823411/54 "2018-10-24T16:26:50Z")
OP makes no sense. ---
**Author:** ![JB99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/439d5e/32.png) [@JB99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JB99)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2018, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-and-abortions/823411/55 "2018-10-24T16:40:07Z")
> [@EscAlaMike](#): > > So the solution to death is more death? Who are you going to fight and kill in this supposed war? My reading of it is that this is, in fact, Cheesesteak’s point. The anti-abortion crowd believes thousands of children are being murdered but they choose to do nothing about it (aside from voting R). Therefore, their actions do not match what they claim to be their motivations. I feel much the same way whenever I meet a conspiracy theorist. If you think the lizard people are controlling the government (or whatever) then overthrowing the lizard people becomes a rational goal. And yet the people who claim to believe this seem content to actually DO very little about it. So either they don’t think the lizard people are important, or they weren’t sincere in the first place. Same thing with the people who claim “Abortion is murder.” Clearly it is not, because the vast majority of these people are not behaving as if they were witnessing a murder in progress. Only a small number of extremists actually take action, and while thir logic is sick and evil and wrong it is at least sincere and internally consistent. ---
**Author:** ![Folacin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folacin/32/3195_2.png) [@Folacin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folacin)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2018, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-and-abortions/823411/56 "2018-10-24T16:54:40Z")
Abortion is murder, and the GOP will do what it can to stop it. And further, I think they think (or at least claim) that America is behind them in this belief. In which case, why don’t they nominate SCOTUS judges who, when asked, say “I believe that Roe v. Wade was wrongly decided on par with Dred Scott, and will vote to overturn it, given a suitable case”? ---
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8dc957/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2018, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-and-abortions/823411/57 "2018-10-24T17:20:41Z")
> [@JB99](#): > > Same thing with the people who claim “Abortion is murder.” Clearly it is not, because the vast majority of these people are not behaving as if they were witnessing a murder in progress. Only a small number of extremists actually take action, and while thir logic is sick and evil and wrong it is at least sincere and internally consistent. So if you are pro-choice, but still regard abortion as murder, you are a hypocrite. Nice. So the right wing is correct about liberals not tolerating dissension in their ranks. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2018, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-and-abortions/823411/58 "2018-10-24T17:24:44Z")
> [@Two\_Many\_Cats](#): > > So if you are pro-choice, but still regard abortion as murder, you are a hypocrite. > > Nice. So the right wing is correct about liberals not tolerating dissension in their ranks. I don’t see it as hypocritical – rather, I just can’t wrap my mind around it. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2018, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-and-abortions/823411/59 "2018-10-24T17:37:58Z")
> [@Two\_Many\_Cats](#): > > So, if I believe abortion is murder, I should support laws that incarcerate women that have them. > > If I believe meat is murder, should I lobby for laws to incarcerate slaughterhouse workers? Yes, if you believe that murder is being committed, then you should be lobbying for the halting of murder, and the punishment of the murderer. > [@Two\_Many\_Cats](#): > > So if you are pro-choice, but still regard abortion as murder, you are a hypocrite. Yes, if you consider it to be murder, then you shouldn’t really be allowing it. Now, if you consider abortion to be murder, but you consider it that way as a form of hyperbole, and you don’t actually think of abortion (or meat) as the equivalent of actual murder, then you are not a hypocrite, but you are guilty of hyperbole. If you consider abortion to be non-hyperbolic murder, and you are willing to allow abortion, then what other forms of murder do you think we should allow? > [@](#): > > Nice. So the right wing is correct about liberals not tolerating dissension in their ranks. Nice, the right wing was correct that their followers would believe any bullshit that spewed out of their mouths. ---
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8dc957/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2018, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-and-abortions/823411/60 "2018-10-24T17:46:14Z")
> [@k9bfriender](#): > > If you consider abortion to be non-hyperbolic murder, and you are willing to allow abortion, then what other forms of murder do you think we should allow? Combat in war? Drone strikes? Stand your ground? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-and-abortions/823411.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-and-abortions/823411.md?page=4)