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AJ ( not the entire name) sent me three
quick emails in succession.
Harry,
What is your position on concealed carry?
AJ
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AJ
If Scotty Lyons, Duluth's Police Chief, doesn't want to give out concealed gun permits to everybody that's OK by me.
Harry
(Read this for an interesting little story on AJ)
***
Harry,
What is your position on choice?
AJ
AJ
I lost the Republican endorsement for 7A because I'm "pro choice." I've adopted that label out of respect for pro lifers who simply regard any deviation from their position as pro choice or as a kind of disenginuity. I will not lie to them. I believe that there ought to be some exceptions for abortion.
The young fellow who is running for the Senate in District 7, and who was endorsed by the Republicans, said this at the endorsing convention: Pro choicers have the blood of 43 million babies who are sitting at the foot of Jesus in heavan above on their hands.
Cripes. That's the kind of rhetoric that drives imbalanced people to gun down people in Planned Parenthood clinics. Frankly, if the cunning political hacks who use abortion to control the true believers in the party didn't fight sensible abortion laws we might see a considerable reduction in the abortion rate. But no, they can not accept compromise of any sort. Well, as far as I'm concerned if fanatical abortion opponants are unwilling to find compromise language then they have the blood of innocents on their hands too - of all the children who might not have been aborted had some sensible compromise had been achieved.
I wrote a column for a local tabloid on this subject. Click here: Sympathy
for a Mass Murderer
It explains how I came to be "pro choice." I will not be one of those weenies who dance around this issue.
Sincerely,
Harry
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Harry,
What would you propose as compromise on choice.
AJ
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AJ
A full reply would require a book and I've got other things I would rather write. For some people on either side there is no compromise on this issue. I couldn't satisfy either extreme. Nonetheless, here are a few hastily written thoughts on the matter.
For starters I'm not interested in any legislation which is designed as a Trojan horse to undermine either side. Most prolife sponsored laws have this in mind. I do think some notification of the medical issues relating to abortion is perfectly appropriate. If this is assured I'm not in favor of a waiting period. I think most medical procedures performed in the US are undertaken only after patients are fully apprised of the potential consequences. I don't think abortions are any different in this regard.
I think some kind of parental notification for minors is reasonable, in fact, ought be presumed except for instance where the child has been thrown out of the house. The parents have sacrificed their custodial rights in cases like this.
I have always felt that contraception is a lesser sin than abortion and would be inclined to make contraceptive devices generally available if they aren't already. Young people in other western nations are much more likely to use them than are our American youth. The proliferation of so many STD's and our increasing hedonism make this all the more desirable.
I would not object to public funding of abortions. I understand the objections that pro life supporters make about paying taxes for purposes that they find morally objectionable but I've heard peace niks complain about having to foot the bill for America's wars. As far as I'm concerned its not sensible to give American lists of gov't services that they don't want their taxes to go to. All our taxes go in the pot and then we as a nation figure out what to spend the money on. Additionally, American's hate welfare and forced births would increase the number of people on the welfare roles.
I do not consider the fetus in the first month or two after conception anything close to the equal of people walking on the street. It is only in the second and third trimesters of a pregnancy that I am troubled about ethical concerns.
In general, the laws that we have in place now are the result of pro life and pro choice forces hammering each other into a stalemate. t I am only interested in tinkering with the details of the existing laws. The majority of the American public no longer is interested in these details no matter how they answer questions on various opinion polls regarding abortion.
This is too bad because abortion is an ethical issue of the greatest import. If we become inured to this debate we may not pay much attention to issues like human cloning which are also fraught with critical ethical concerns.
Sincerely,
Harry Welty
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