Editor’s note: Thursday’s “Number of the Day” was delivered by guest host John Fugelsang.
If Mitt Romney wins the presidency next month, he’ll take office in early 2013, a year which happens to be the 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, and that’s our number of the day: 40.
Gov. Romney has said that he wants to repeal Roe v. Wade but that he supports abortion rights in cases of rape, incest and when the mother’s life is threatened. I know, I know — that would be like repealing “Obamacare,” but keeping the parts you like.
The Democratic Party is turning up the heat on the GOP over women’s reproductive freedoms, hoping to sway women voters. Many polls indicate it hasn’t quite worked.
Gov. Romney has become fond of saying that women care more about employment than Roe v. Wade, which is an elegant way of saying, “Aren’t you ladies desperate enough to give up some rights for a job? What’s more important, reproductive rights or making 77 percent of what a man makes?”
And whether you’re for or against abortion rights, if you’re younger than 50, you’ve got one thing in common: You likely have no memory of what life was like before Roe.
My mom, who is in her 70s, is a former nun and was a registered nurse for many years. I’ve heard her talking with her friends about this issue. None of them like abortion, but they all remember what it was like to work in emergency rooms before the law, and that’s why they support the law.
So I’d ask everyone who’s planning on voting for Romney to consider this: Once he paves the way for a repeal of Roe v. Wade and subsequently criminalizes abortion, the woman who terminates a pregnancy herself as well as doctors who perform the procedure will be sentenced to jail. That’s what you’re voting for.
So vote wisely.
