by Nomad
GOP establishment might be banking on Marco Rubio but his total-restriction views on abortions actually represent a mere 19% of the American people.
No Exceptions Marco
Last year a Gallup poll suggested that a narrow majority of Americans (51%) felt that abortion should remain legal under certain circumstances. Twenty-nine percent, however, said that abortion should be legal under all circumstances.
The lowest percentage of the respondents (19%) said that abortion should be illegal under any and all circumstance. Ordinarily, this absolute limit refers to conditions where the mother's life is in danger or pregnancy following a rape or incest.
That absolutist restrictive poition has always been the extremes of the pro-life movement. In fact, the SCOTUS' Roe vs. Wade decision originated from a rape case. (The ruling, however, did not revolve around that particular circumstance.)
On Sunday, the GOP establishment's latest hope, Marco Rubio revealed that, if elected- he would only very reluctantly sign a anti-abortion bill that provided an exception for rape and incest cases.
His position pits the candidate against a full 81% of the American electorate.
A Human Rights Issue
In the past Rubio has been heavily criticized for joining the 19% who think abortion is wrong in all circumstances and he has called it "a human rights issue." In the past, his view has been, that life begins at conception and therefore abortion is a form of murder.
In a recent interview, he was quick to point out his single limit- when the mother's life is in danger. Otherwise, his opinions have been consistently and unyieldingly pro-life. That includes requiring ultrasounds before performing abortions and a prohibition against the used of human embryonic stem cell research.
Disingenuously Rubio claimed in Sunday's interview that, unlike the other candidates, abortion is not a political issue for him.
Really, Marco?
Ever since it seized upon religious outrage on abortion back in Reagan's time. the Republican party has made abortion a political issue. To be a Republican means to be anti-abortion, despite the fact that the law of the land, as established by the high court.
So voters have every right to doubt Rubio's assurances that politics are not involved in his stance on this subject.
She told one interviewer:
"This is something that illustrates how Senator Rubio has been going as far as he can to buttress his credentials with certain parts of the Republican constituency."
At least on this subject, making his pleasing to the Republican elite and its evangelical fringe could wipe could ensure a Republican loss in the November general election.
The Capital Punishment Paradox
Clinton is right, of course. However, the hypocrisy doesn't really belong solely to Marco Rubio.
The Republican endorsement for the pro-life movement has not been an easy one. One of the problems is that it is impossible to reconcile that pro-life position with its pro-capital punishment position.
If life is sacred then the lives of the worst examples of humankind must be sacred too. If the sanctity of life is dictated by God, then how can flawed humankind with its corrupted justice system ever be justified in the taking any life at all.
Nevertheless, Republican support for the death penalty currently sits at 76 percent. However, as high a percentage as it is, it is also a new low.
Rubio wants his supporters to ignore the fact that, according to the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, the use of capital punishment is very much a human rights issue. This has been true since 1948.
If life is sacred then the lives of the worst examples of humankind must be sacred too. If the sanctity of life is dictated by God, then how can flawed humankind with its corrupted justice system ever be justified in the taking any life at all.
Nevertheless, Republican support for the death penalty currently sits at 76 percent. However, as high a percentage as it is, it is also a new low.
Rubio wants his supporters to ignore the fact that, according to the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, the use of capital punishment is very much a human rights issue. This has been true since 1948.
The United Nations adopted without dissent the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). The Declaration proclaims the right of every individual to protection from deprivation of life. It states that no one shall be subjected to cruel or degrading punishment. The death penalty violates both of these fundamental rights
Indeed, Rubio himself is caught in this trap. In his book, he expressed what he saw as the inadequacy of the courts when it came to protracted legal battles in death penalty cases. Pro-life is inaccurate, his critics claimed, the view is really just anti-abortion. In 2006 pro-life Rubio said that "endless death row appeals hinder justice."
Instead of abolishing capital punishment, he would prefer to streamline the process.
Imagine this paradox facing all absolutists like Rubio. Two women are raped and one is murdered by the rapist. The man is arrested, and convicted of the horrific crime and sentenced to death for his crime.
Rubio, with his support of capital punishment, wouldn't have a problem with that.
However when the survivor of the crime realizes she is pregnant, Rubio would object on pro-life grounds. Even as her rapist is denied his own right to life.
Rubio, with his support of capital punishment, wouldn't have a problem with that.
However when the survivor of the crime realizes she is pregnant, Rubio would object on pro-life grounds. Even as her rapist is denied his own right to life.
On Sunday, ABC News host George Stephanopoulos pressed the candidate further- clearly further than he might have wished.
What, asked the interviewer, would you say to a woman carrying a baby created by a rape or incest?
“It’s a terrible. I mean, a crisis pregnancy, especially as a result of something as horrifying as that, I’m not telling you it’s easy. I’m not here saying it’s an easy choice. It’s a horrifying thing that you’ve just described.”
It was a difficult issue, he told Stephanopoulos, but he added that he "gets it." Regardless of the woman's personal problems, he remained firm in his opposition.
It's not an easy choice, he says, yet, if Rubio had his way, he would deny women to make any choice at all.
"I believe a human being, an unborn child has a right to live, irrespective of the circumstances of which they were conceived. And I know that the majority of Americans don’t agree with me on that.”
As far as women's right to make choices- even when they are victims of one of the worst kinds of crime- Rubio doesn't seem to "get it" at all.
