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• Monday, December 3, 2007 08:18 AM

  The things left unmentioned

  I think it's great that the more fringe candidates are getting some coverage, especially as I am not particularly enamored of the mainstream ones. However, in a race that is in large part being waged over social issues, why such little discussion on Paul's views of reproductive rights, particularly abortion? Yes, this country is in a hole. We can barely keep the economy from drowning, national debt is spiraling to levels of absolute despair, and the Iraq war is one the worst events in our country's history (not to mention how the Iraqis must be feeling about it). But Ron Paul is adamantly, unapologetically anti-choice. I fail to see how someone who is so pro-individual liberties can deem a woman as unworthy to decide for herself and for her own body what is best. Views of whether reproductive choice is a right tell us a lot about views of rights and liberties more generally and who deserves them. It isn't about not liking abortions, liking babies, or any of the usual rhetoric put out there by even pro-choice folks. It's about who has the right over the integrity of their own bodies. We have seen in history that when people lack bodily integrity, it is not such a far leap to remove other sorts of rights. Paul's speeches and sound bites might focus on the economy, taxes, and the war, but it does little service to the readership to ignore his social views, especially when Paul is trying to woo those in the embittered Left, too.

  —seejaneempowered Read seejaneempowered's other letters
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