[Vision2020] The GOP War On Women Accelerates

[Art Deco]

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August 21, 2012
Akin Controversy Stirs Up Abortion Issue in Campaign By JENNIFER
STEINHAUER<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/s/jennifer_steinhauer/index.html>

WASHINGTON — As an orator, Representative Todd
Akin<ttp://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/a/todd_akin/index.html?inline=nyt-per>of
Missouri may stand out for his clumsiness. But as a legislator, Mr.
Akin
has a record on abortion that is largely indistinguishable from those of
most of his Republican House colleagues, who have viewed restricting
abortion rights as one of their top priorities.

That agenda — largely eclipsed for two years by a protracted fiscal crisis
and the fight over how to manage the federal deficit — has wedged its way,
for now at least, to the center of the 2012 campaign. It is focusing
attention on an issue that helped earn Mitt
Romney<http://elections.nytimes.com/2012/primaries/candidates/mitt-romney?inline=nyt-per>,
the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, a reputation as a
flip-flopper, threatening the Republican quest for control of the Senate,
and leaving Representative Paul D.
Ryan<http://elections.nytimes.com/2012/candidates/paul-ryan?inline=nyt-per>of
Wisconsin, Mr. Romney’s vice-presidential pick, in the uncomfortable
position of distinguishing himself from Mr. Akin, with whom he has often
concurred.

It is an agenda that has enjoyed the support of House leaders, including
Speaker John A. Boehner and Representative Eric Cantor, the majority
leader, who has called anti-abortion measures “obviously very important in
terms of the priorities we set out initially in our pledge to America.” It
became inextricably linked to the near-shutdown of the federal government
last year when an agreement to keep the government open was reached only
after it was linked to a measure restricting abortion in the District of
Columbia.

Even as Congressional Republicans, including Mr. Boehner, denounced Mr.
Akin’s remark that victims of “legitimate rape” were able to somehow
prevent pregnancy, an agenda to roll back abortion is one that House
Republicans have largely moved in step with.

In an anti-abortion measure once sponsored by Mr. Akin, Mr. Ryan and scores
of other Republican lawmakers, an exemption was made for victims of
“forcible” rape, though that word was later removed.

*On Tuesday, Republicans approved platform language for next week’s
nominating convention that calls for a constitutional amendment outlawing
abortion with no explicit exceptions for cases of rape or incest. That is a
view more restrictive than Mr. Romney’s, who has said that he supports
exceptions to allow abortions in cases of rape. *

* *Mr. Ryan’s more conservative views, which have been reflected in votes
that would restrict family planning financing overseas, cut off all federal
funds to Planned Parenthood and repeal President Obama’s health care
law<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/health/diseasesconditionsandhealthtopics/health_insurance_and_managed_care/health_care_reform/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier>,
have come into sharp relief as Mr. Akin struggles for his political life.
Mr. Akin and Mr. Ryan each have voted in this Congress for 10
abortion-restricting measures as well as those that limited other family
planning services.

Both Mr. Ryan and Mr. Romney have earned praise for their positions from
the National Right to Life group and other anti-abortion organizations.
“The right-to-life Romney/Ryan ticket is now complete,” wrote Barbara Lyons
and Sue Armacost, executive director and legislative director for Wisconsin
Right to Life, on the organization’s Web site.

It is a legislative theme Democrats plan to highlight, even as House
Republicans try to keep the focus on economic issues.

“All you need to know is that the House Republicans were willing to shut
down the government rather than fund Planned Parenthood,” said
Representative Nancy Pelosi, the House Democratic leader, in an e-mail on
Tuesday. “This is in keeping with their efforts — whether it’s Congressman
Akin or Chairman Ryan or others — to deny investments in critical women’s
health services, weaken the definition of rape, and take away access to
preventive care like cervical and breast cancer screenings.”

The House Republican agenda has troubled the half-dozen or so Republican
House members whose views differ from those of their colleagues.

“I have time and again spoken out against this to leadership,” said
Representative Robert Dold of Illinois, who is in a tough re-election
battle. “I’ve tried to talk to them about the issues that we ought to be
moving forward on, like out-of-control spending.”

Mr. Dold has voted in favor of half of the abortion restriction measures in
this Congress, far fewer than most of his colleagues. “There is no question
that there are times when I may disagree with a vote that’s brought to the
floor,” he said in an interview, “and the majority of my Republican
colleagues, but that is just part of what we deal with every day.”

There have long been lawmakers, like Mr. Akin, whose main legislative
agenda centers on the abortion issue. They got a boost after the 2010
election when a large group of conservative members joined them.

Mr. Romney’s views align with that of the Mormon Church, which opposes
abortion except in cases of rape and incest or when the life of the woman
is in danger. He has said he is personally opposed to abortion; as a Mormon
bishop in the 1980s he attempted to talk a congregant out of terminating a
pregnancy after doctors advised her to do so because of a potentially
lethal blood clot.

But abortion has proved to be a politically volatile topic for Mr. Romney,
whose evolving views have disappointed liberals and stirred distrust among
conservatives.

In 1994, when he challenged Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Mr. Romney said he
would “not force our beliefs on others on that matter.” In 2002, as a
candidate for governor, he claimed to support “the substance” of Roe v.
Wade. By 2005, though, when he was beginning to consider a presidential
run, he had reversed course and described himself as a “pro-life governor
in a pro-choice state.” Now, as a presidential candidate, he refers to
himself as solidly “pro-life.”

Aides to Mr. Romney declined to say on Tuesday whether he would call on the
convention delegates to reconsider their position on abortion.

Reince Priebus, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, tried to
deflect questions on behalf of Mr. Romney, saying on Fox News that “this is
the platform of the Republican
Party<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/r/republican_party/index.html?inline=nyt-org>;
it is not the platform of Mitt Romney.”

The idea of outlawing any exceptions for abortion is not new in American
political discourse or in legislation, nor are proposals to narrow the
definition of rape to distinguish between what some call “forcible rape”
and cases involving statutory rape or even some types of date rape.
Anti-abortion activists have long been concerned that women would falsely
claim to have been raped to gain an exemption to terminate a pregnancy.

Historians and other experts on abortion politics say the no-exceptions
idea became part of the debate virtually as soon as Roe v. Wade legalized
abortion in 1973. “It has deep roots,” said Donald Critchlow, a historian
at Arizona State University who has studied abortion politics. He added,
“It’s appealing to segments within the Republican Party to show that you’re
pro-life.”

Susan Cohen, director of government affairs for the Guttmacher Institute, a
research group in Washington that supports abortion rights, said the
no-exceptions idea is “not new and it’s not fringe.”

“It is something that has been part of mainstream anti-abortion movement,”
she said. “The record is replete with evidence of the fact that there was
this no-exceptions attitude, and of course this makes logical sense from
the perspective of people who believe an embryo should have the same legal
status as you and I do.”

In the 1992 election, the Republican Party included in its platform
language opposing abortion, allowing no exceptions and calling for a
constitutional amendment to make abortion illegal. Similar language
opposing any exceptions was included in 2000 and 2004, even though George
W. Bush also supported outlawing abortion except in cases of rape, incest,
or when the life of the woman was in danger.

Four years ago, the Republican Party adopted a platform seeking an
unconditional ban on abortion, though its nominee, Senator John McCain, had
urged the party in the past to allow certain exceptions. After this year’s
abortion plank language was approved with little debate, the chairman of
the platform committee, Gov. Bob McDonnell of Virginia, praised the
committee for “affirming our respect for human life.”

Pam Belluck and Michael Cooper contributed reporting from New York.

-- 
Art Deco (Wayne A. Fox)
art.deco.studios at gmail.com
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