Republican Hypocrites and Abortion: The Rich Don't Care

Nothing angers me more about Republican presidential candidates than their hypocrisy about abortion.

Only Rudolph Giuliani, a bad man in other regards, will admit there is a role for legalized abortion in a civilized society.

The other Republican presidential would-bes condemn abortion absolutely and support a constitutional amendment or state law criminalizing abortion.

No one can convince me that if the daughter or grandaughter of one of these guys came up pregnant thanks to copulations with a brother or an uncle or a rapist or a father for that matter that that daughter would not find herself spirited off to a wealthy, discreet doctor for an abortion. Or came up pregnant with a fetus whose birth would threaten her life.

When I was a young police reporter, lo, eons ago, I learned that abortions in the U.S., though criminal then, happened all the time. The poor and the ignorant used coat hangers or what-have-you to rid themselves of the fetus.

The middle class, if they had the money, sent a daughter or wife off to a distant hospital or “rest” home specializing in abortions. If they didn’t have the dinero, they chanced with friendly fellahs who ran little shops specializing in high colonics and advertised as such.

The rich, of course, had the best medical doctors available and the best, most discreet treatment all around. No for them the high mortality rates of lesser creatures–i.e., those with less money. And not for them the indictment now and then for the felony of undergoing an abortion. Not for them seeing a daughter frogmarched off to prison for getting rid of an incestuous fetus or one that would have killed her during labor.

The Republican presidential candidates all have money, lots of it. They know they don’t have to worry if by a miracle they manage to outlaw abortion by constitutional amendment criminalizing it or allowing states to criminalize it. But they also know the issue plays to the boobs and the panting religous–that is, it translates into votes. And that’s what they want, votes, not justice.