ABORTION: Does GOP support gays?

Abortion? Pro or con? Right or wrong? But that is not the question. Thanks to Mr. Akin’s ignorance and inane remarks about legal rape we have been alerted to the subject of abortion.

A plank of the GOP’s present platform is to amend the Constitution to ban ALL abortions. This would target only a segment of our society: some pregnant women and women who have limited financial resources. A pregnant woman with adequate financial resources will simply book a flight abroad and get her abortion. The woman without such means must remain here to be subjected to discrimination. Suppose a teenage girl is a victim of rape or incest and becomes pregnant. Suppose she somehow gets an abortion. What are the consequences? Will she be tried in court for premeditated murder? Will she be sentenced to death or just given a life sentence?

Pro-life people oppose abortions of any kind. So isn’t it reasonable to expect these people to wholeheartedly support gay marriage? A woman involved in a same sex marriage is not apt to need an abortion.

The pros and cons of this proposed constitutional amendment remind me of an experience of my youth. I grew up during the Great Depression and the era of Prohibition. I lived in a rural community. Our family had milk cows. In the morning after having been milked the cows were let loose on the open range. This area was largely wooded with patches of grass where the cows could graze. One of my summer chores was to go out every afternoon and find the cows and drive them home. In the course of these daily walks each summer I would discover at least one operating still. Our community had an unwritten rule that “no one ever saw a still,” as a still might be owned by a friend, neighbor or a relative. Federal and local government found this 18th Amendment very expensive and practically impossible to enforce. Consequently the 18th Amendment was soon rescinded by the 21st Amendment.

While I’m considering amendments, I am wondering why the working class people don’t make an effort to rescind the 16th Amendment. They (working people) seem to be the only ones still making payments.

LIZ ANDERSON

Coeur d’Alene