March 29, 2024

LETTER: The big lie(s)

The barrage of political ads is finally over, at least for a few months, and voters and pundits alike are pondering the confusing results of the mid-term elections. The Republicans were favored to win big time; the prevailing winds were definitely in their favor, but the expected “Red Wave” didn’t happen. The question is why. Certainly there are many contributing reasons, but one stands out most prominently.

Think back to the Democrat campaign ads. What was the issue they most often focused on? Abortion. They couched it in lies and euphemisms, which were rarely challenged by Republican candidates.

They said the Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v Wade meant that abortion was illegal everywhere. A big lie. It only returned abortion to pre Roe v Wade status as a state’s issues to be decided by voters in each state.

They said that if Republicans won, women would lose their “reproductive freedom.” Another big lie. No one is prohibiting a woman from conceiving a child or having as many as she wants. State laws restricting abortion only regulate if, when and/or under what circumstances an already pregnant woman woman can legally have an abortion, ending the life of her unborn child.

They painted the Republican position to restrict abortion in any way as “extreme”, one more big lie. The Democrat position of totally unrestricted abortion – abortion for any reason or no reason at all and at any time, including up to the moment of birth also known as “partial birth abortion,” is truly the real extreme position. I’ll leave it up to the reader to look up the gruesome description of the procedure, but it doesn’t take a lot of imagination to visualize what the term “partial birth abortion” means when a baby’s life is taken just before it would otherwise take its first breath of air.

Many years ago in a conversation with then Senator Harkin he said, “No one’s for abortion.” That was perhaps the biggest lie, because the Democrat party has always been for abortion. And this time they won elections when they made it the primary issue of their campaigns and preached the big lies to their loyal believers.

In future elections Republican candidates need to challenge the big lies head-on every time the issue of abortion is brought up. Offer the truth, alternatives and resources to help women experiencing unplanned pregnancy.