Issue Position: Reproductive Rights

Issue Position

Issue Position: Reproductive Rights

I believe that abortion should be safe, legal, and above all, rare, and I am fully committed to using all the political and social means available to reduce its frequency. At the same time, I am concerned about the increasing intrusion of government into the private lives, the family and medical affairs, of American families. And in this extremely difficult area, many of us find ourselves locked into hard, polarized positions on this issue, and that reduces our ability to find common ground and take positive steps to solve the problem.

Reproductive rights are one of the most profoundly difficult and divisive public policy issues facing American leaders today. The debate is often framed in a polarized, either/or way, "right to life" or "pro choice." The issue divides friends and families, and for many it's the single issue on which they vote.

In all my travels over the past two years, I have yet to find a voice on either side of the argument that advocates for abortion. Everyone wants to see fewer abortions. This, I think, is the common ground we can find and build on. I am fully committed to using all the political and social means available to reduce its frequency. That includes approaches ranging from family planning education and health insurance support to substantive support for adoption, a difficult but under-utilized option for dealing with unwanted pregnancy, but I will never support Congress intruding into overturning Roe v.Wade.

I can best relate my position on this issue with a personal experience. Almost a decade ago I was told that I had a one-in-ten chance of surviving emergency cancer surgery. From a hospital bed, I discussed with my wife my end-of-life decisions: which measures would be allowed, which would not, and what would happen if I died on the operating table. From the depth of that emotional hell I never thought that a day would come when Tom DeLay would snap his fingers and summon all the freshmen members of the Republican Congress back to Washington in the middle of a Saturday night to vote on a law that would intrude in the private life of another family facing the same tragedy. Yet, that was exactly what happened in the case of the Schiavo family last year. My opponent was one of those who made the trip and voted to intrude into that torn family's crisis.

That nightmare vision of governmental intrusion led me to conclude that government should not be in the business of regulating personal decisions -- no matter how debatable, no matter how contentious -- on reproductive rights. These are deeply individual and private matters, and the government has no business there.

I believe, based on my personal religious and moral code, that abortion is not the best solution to what is invariably a traumatic personal situation. At the same time, I believe even more strongly that I do not have the right to make that decision for others.

Here's what I think is the real choice, the one that can make a real difference today. We can stay completely divided by this issue, and continue taking each other hostage with absolute, all-or-nothing positions. Or, we can build on the common ground we have, and put our energy into the idea that abortion should be safe, legal, and above all, rare. I choose the latter. Let's work towards making that happen. Let's redouble our education and prevention efforts, and work to make this exceptionally difficult problem a rare one.

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