Election 2012

Akin, Ryan and the GOP Share the Same Abortion Agenda

My Wednesday column covers the Republican Party platform plank on abortion and determines that there's no difference between Akin and the GOP and the Romney ticket.

The Republican Party is assembling its platform in preparation for the big convention starting next week. With horrendous timing, the party issued the following plank regarding abortion, via CNN:

“Faithful to the ‘self-evident’ truths enshrined in the Declaration of Independence, we assert the sanctity of human life and affirm that the unborn child has a fundamental individual right to life which cannot be infringed,” the draft platform declares. “We support a human life amendment to the Constitution and endorse legislation to make clear that the Fourteenth Amendment’s protections apply to unborn children.”

I should note here that there's nothing legally binding about the Declaration and, by the way, the founders only mentioned "all men" as being equal. Women couldn't own land or vote. Neither could any people of color. Surely there wasn't any intention in the document to include zygotes as possessing the self-evident truths of equality and unalienable rights. Seriously, the Republicans are ostensibly strict constructionists when it comes to the founding documents and so they see no room for modern interpretation or redefinition of the Declaration or Constitution -- except when it comes to this and the unregulated marketing of assault rifles.

Either way, this is the Republican Party position. This is Todd Akin's position, too. Continue reading here.