Dean: Reshaping the Abortion Issue
The QandO Blog
Posted by: McQ
Friday, April 22, 2005
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"I think we need to talk differently about abortion," the blunt-spoken physician and former Vermont governor told several hundred supporters of the Minnesota affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union at the Minneapolis Convention Center.
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That should be interesting. Howard Dean is of the opinion that abortion, as the debate is presently framed, is a loser for the Democrats. So how should it be framed to be a winner for Dems? Here are Dean's thoughts:
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The debate shouldn't be about whether abortion is good or bad, Dean said. It should be about whether a woman has a right to make up her own mind.
"We got pushed into a corner by the Republican propaganda machine, forced to debate and defend positions that aren't our positions," he said. "I don't know anybody in America who's pro-abortion."
"If I could strike the words 'choice' and 'abortion' out of the lexicon of our party, I would," he said. "The debate and the difference between the parties is we believe a woman has a right to make up her own mind about her health care, and they (Republicans) believe that (House Majority Leader) Tom DeLay and the boys in Congress should be making up that woman's mind."
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Disclaimer: I have horrendous problems with the issue of abortion personally. I am terribly torn. I reluctantly, very reluctantly, come down on the side of individual choice for the woman, but only in the first trimester. That's it. That's my abortion stance, a stance I'm not here to argue or debate.
This is about the politics of the issue.
To pretend, as Dean appears ready to do, that this is nothing more than a "health care" issue is simply not going to fly. This is one of the more polarizing issues in American politics, and for Dr. Dean to pretend that its simply a "health care" issue (not to mention pretending he knows no one on the left who is "pro-abortion"), is simply disengenous.
Abortion is one of the great moral dilemmas of our time. As the country appears to be moving in a more conservative direction, its popularity is waning. It is extremely important issue to a number of voters on the conservative side of the fence.
So claiming that the Democrats are only talking about a woman's right to make choices about "health care" is simply not going to persuade any of them ... and I assume this proposed change in the way Democrats talk about abortion is to do just that.
Obviously Dean understands and is facing up too is the fact that "anytime-and-for-any-reason" abortion is indeed becoming less and less popular among the majority of Americans. But it is such a bedrock issue for most of the left that he also knows he can't really change the Democrats position on abortion and get away with that either. So he's reduced to touting semantic tricks to try to 'reframe' the debate.
It's as transparent as most of Cher's clothes.
Obviously the "morning after" pill could see the entire abortion debate become relatively moot. However semantic changes in the abortion argument by the Democrats isn't going to fool or persuade anyone the Democrats are interested in seeing change sides come election day ... at least not on this issue.
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