Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Seeking Secondary Virgins for Political Office

There have been several newspaper articles in the past week about the Republican's "abortion problem." Many of the front runners for the Republican nomination have publicly taken pro-choice positions in the past. Some like Mitt Romney and John McCain are disavowing them; others like Rudy Guiliani are trying to distance themselves from the issue.

It's clear whose votes they are trying to wrap up. The majority of Republicans do not support overturning the Roe v. Wade decision; it's the conservative Christian voter that they are trying to reassure.

The New York Times on Sunday reported that Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform said that "any of the four could redeem themselves in the eyes of the conservative movement despite their past records just as some high school students take abstinence pledges even after having had sex." They quote Mr. Norquist as saying, "It's called secondary virginity. It's a big movement in high school and also available for politicians."

Perhaps someone needs to tell Mr. Norquist that pledges of secondary virginity most often only last until the teenager falls in love again. Or that if they are truly pro-life, they would call for candidates who are committed to reducing unintended pregnancies through the most effective ways we know how -- sex education and family planning services.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's clear whose votes they are trying to wrap up. The majority of Republicans do not support overturning the Roe v. Wade decision; it's the conservative Christian voter that they are trying to reassure.
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Rev. Debra, would you be able to provide some stats for this? I'm not necessarily questioning that this is the case, but I'm interested to see how close it is.

True pro-lifers are usually very suspect of politicians who waffle on this issue. Giuliani will never get their vote. McCain or Romey would if they were running against a pro-choice Democrat.

While I may question a politician's change of heart on the abortion issue, I think people can truly change their position on the matter. Norma McCorvey did.

Debra W. Haffner said...

Cassandra, I'm assuming you mean that virginity pledges fail? If so, google "Peter Bearman" at Google Scholar and you'll get references to a number of his article evaluating virginity pledges.

Anonymous said...

Actually, no. I'd like to see stats showing that the majority of Republicans do not support Roe v. Wade.