Deprecated: Creation of dynamic property nxs_wpAddnEngine::$k is deprecated in /home/stiernet/marcstier.com/blog2/wp-content/plugins/nxs-snap-pro-upgrade/nxs-snap-pro-upgrade.php on line 11
{"id":6904,"date":"2013-03-04T21:55:52","date_gmt":"2013-03-05T02:55:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/?p=6904"},"modified":"2017-11-07T21:02:04","modified_gmt":"2017-11-08T02:02:04","slug":"allyson-schwartz-and-the-abortion-issue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/?p=6904","title":{"rendered":"Allyson Schwartz and the Abortion Issue"},"content":{"rendered":"

Now, do I need to add that every one of those intelligent analysts are men? (And that a few of them appear to be working for other potential candidates for Governor who presumably support abortion but are raising questions about Allyson’s support of it?)<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The DGA poll that showed Allyson beating Corbett in every part of the state really pushed on that issue and it had no effect on the polls. Why not? Why are the (male) analysts wrong? The reason is that both the state and our nation as a whole have dramatically changed from the old days when being pro-choice made it hard to win statewide in Pennsylvania and when the abortion issue hurt Democrats nationally.<\/span><\/p>\n

Women in the cities and the suburbs\u2014especially the Philly subburbs\u2014are pro-choice. Many of them are Republicans or lapsed Republicans or the children of Republicans become independents. How do you think Obama wins by huge numbers percent in Montco and Delco? It’s the vote of these women. And some of the pro-life men in Western PA aren’t Democrats or don’t vote for Democrats any more. Rendell and Obama and Kane showed that you can win in the state even if you lose more of them than Governor Bob Casey did.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

There was a time, immediately after Roe vs. Wade, when the abortion issue really helped Republicans because it divided both parties. Those who opposed the abortion were really passionate about it in part because they had lost in the Court and in part because of their religious fervor. The result was that\u00a0many pro-life Democrats voted for Republicans.\u00a0Pro-choice Republicans were more likely to stick\u00a0with their party because, as the winners on Roe, they were less passionate about the issue and because could count on the court to protect abortion rights.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Then three things happened.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

First there was generational change. A lot of the kids of those pro-life Republicans are now indpendents or even\u00a0Democrats because they share the Democratic stand on cultural issues. In addition,\u00a0 many of their parents were old-time liberal Republicans on\u00a0economic issues and the Republican Party has moved far to the right on those\u00a0issues as well.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Second, the Republican threat to abortion rights keeps getting more serious. We are one SCOTUS seat from losing Roe. Republicans are ramping up the effort to push awful restrictions on access to abortion and ultra-sound requirements (which Corbett notoriously supports). And the Republican Party has gone off the deep end both\u00a0in supporting these restrictions and, even more,\u00a0in rejecting abortion in the case of rape and incest. (And don’t forget Santorum’s attempt to make contraception a political issue again.)<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

And third, there is a personal factor.\u00a0Neither political analysts nor political scientists have given it enough recognition.\u00a0About\u00a0a third\u00a0of all women have had abortions. Contrary to the image of a abortion as the first recourse of young single irresponsible women, the majority of those who have abortion are married women whose birth control failed and who are not in a position to have another child. Even for single women, abortion is the last resort when contraception fails, not the first. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Every woman has a close friend or daughter or mother who has had an abortion. A lot of men have had wives or daughter or girlfriends who have had abortions. They\u2014and especially the women\u2014know how difficult a decision it is to have an abortion; how hard it is to get abortion; and how important it is for a woman to find good health care provider that can also provide a safe, non-judgmental and supportive place to have an abortion if they need one. This personal experience has gradually had an impact on political views of abortion.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

So it\u2019s not just that the majority of women and men are pro-choice. It\u2019s that the abortion issue is a visceral issue for pro-choice women in a way that men find very hard to understand because, after all, it\u2019s not our bodies that get pregnant.\u00a0 But for the vast majority of women who want control over their own bodies, it really does trump everything else. Even if the polls show that most women and men\u00a0don\u2019t believe abortion should be a method of birth control or legal in this case or that, deep down women and men understand that birth control fails. So a strong\u00a0majority of women and a majority of men really do believe that is important to keep abortion legal and safe.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

It’s a huge advantage for a Democrat to be pro-choice now. And there is a huge advantage to be a female\u00a0candidate because women trust women on this issue more than they trust men, and with good reason. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

So, yes, there are going to be really\u00a0nasty TV ads about the Blackwell Center coming from Corbett. Despite the polls and focus groups which will show them they shouldn\u2019t do it, I don\u2019t think the old white guys who tell Corbett what to do will be able to help themselves. They just can\u2019t recognize or accept\u00a0a world in which men don’t control the bodies of women. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

But when Corbett runs the abortion provider ads, they are just going to blow up in his face.\u00a0Allyson will look into a TV camera at a debate or in her own ad and talk as a woman to other women (and men) about difficult personal decisions, \u00a0about how important it is that they have the right to make those decisions in a place of safety and respect, and how male politicians like Tom Corbett have no business putting themselves in the middle of those decisions. And\u00a0that, among other things, will carry the day and the election for Allyson Schwartz.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"