By Selwyn Duke
In an interview this past Wednesday with CNN’s Piers Morgan, presidential contender Herman Cain was asked about abortion — and his answer got him in hot water. Cain said that he believes life begins at conception and, consistent with that reality, that he considers abortion wrong in all situations, including rape and incest. So far, so good. But then, upon being challenged on the rape-and-incest point by Morgan, he had the following to say about the government’s role in the matter:
No, it comes down to is, it’s not the government’s role — or anybody else’s role — to make that decision [about abortion]. Secondly, if you look at the statistical incidents, you’re not talking about that big a number. So what I’m saying is, it ultimately gets down to a choice that that family or that mother has to make. Not me as president. Not some politician. Not a bureaucrat. It gets down to that family. And whatever they decide, they decide. I shouldn’t try to tell them what decision to make for such a sensitive decision.
… The government shouldn’t be trying to tell people everything to do, especially when it comes to a social decision that they need to make.
Read the rest here.
While I do believe abortion should be taken seriously, I can't agree with you on banning them completely. No, it shouldn't be used as birth control but, frankly, it's more humane than the gamble many newborns are inadvertently taking simply by being born into adverse circumstances. Furthermore, rape creates an offspring the mother might resent to the point of being abusive. The option of adoption also gets compromised by adoptive parents who may be concerned that the rapist father has criminality imprinted in his DNA.
Posted by: lurker | October 26, 2011 at 11:34 AM
It's the height of statism to want the government to police women's uteruses.
How do you stop them from having abortions if they lose the right to choose one?
The answer is simple. You CAN'T. Trying to enforce laws against abortion is absolutely futile,unlike laws against murder or rape which can be enforced.
How do you keep track of every pregnant woman or girl to make sure she won't have an abortion? You can't. Women will always find a way. Right to life? What about the right to decent food,shelter,education and medical care? As long as there are poor women who are unable to provide these basic necessities for their children, born or unborn, abortion will be common.
Trying to stop it by making it illegal is like trying to stop a forest fire by pouring gasoline on it and lighting up cigarettes. Disastrously counterproductive. Remember Prohibition? How effective was that in stopping eople from consuming alcohol? It will be the same with abortion if it becomes illegla again here.
Abortion is illegal in Brazil, which is ironically the world's largest Catholic nation. Yet every year, more abortions happen there than in the U.S. !
The Brazilian government doesn't even pretend to enforce the law, because it CAN'T !
Posted by: Robert Berger | October 26, 2011 at 12:23 PM
I would like to recommend to Selwyn's readership the book "This is Herman Cain: My Journey to the White House" by Herman Cain.
In it, you will find a man of intelligence, confidence, success, determination and a winning way. He is also a man of impeccable character - of whom the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. referred in his "I have a dream" speech.
Mr. Cain has my support and if he wins the Republican primary, he has my vote.
Posted by: Philip France | October 26, 2011 at 09:53 PM