As a child, my mother sang her first solo--”Oh, Little Town of Bethlehem”--in front of her church in Dixon, Illinois, accompanied on the church organ by Ronald Reagan’s mother. But as Mom tells it, the family didn’t pronounce the name RAY-gun back then, but REE-gun.
My mother knew someone else while she was growing up in Dixon back in the 1930s and ’40s: a young woman who became pregnant out-of-wedlock. The young woman’s mother was a social climber, who believed her daughter could do better than the schoolteacher who’d impregnated and was willing to marry her daughter. This mother drove her daughter to Chicago for a back alley abortion. The daughter then developed an infection and died.
The daugther was an only child. After her death, her father became so despondent he had to be institutionalized. The woman’s mother appeared to suffer little.
Mom and I agreed the greatest sin was committed by the mother, who cared more about outward appearances than other people.
Unfortunately, I observed this same sin in Ronald Reagan. After a friend talked me into voting for him on the basis of the abortion issue, it quickly became clear Reagan was an actor who’d played Christians for suckers and had no intention of doing anything about the abortion issue. That’s assuming he could.
Constitutional scholars say even if the Supreme Court were stacked with pro-life justices, most justices are reluctant to overturn precedent. Of the four current conservative justices, only Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia have expressed a willingness to overturn Roe vs. Wade.
Even if the Supreme Court succeeded in getting those five votes, this would only throw the abortion issue back to individual states. Ever drive to Wyoming to buy illegal fireworks? A pro-life state can’t decide not to honor the abortion a woman received in a pro-choice state.
Long before Roe vs. Wade, there were abortions in Reagan’s hometown. While I admire those who adopt, volunteer at crisis pregnancy clinics and unconditionally support their unwed pregnant daughters, I can’t imagine how anyone could be suckered into believing they’re preventing abortions by voting pro-life.
My mother knew someone else while she was growing up in Dixon back in the 1930s and ’40s: a young woman who became pregnant out-of-wedlock. The young woman’s mother was a social climber, who believed her daughter could do better than the schoolteacher who’d impregnated and was willing to marry her daughter. This mother drove her daughter to Chicago for a back alley abortion. The daughter then developed an infection and died.
The daugther was an only child. After her death, her father became so despondent he had to be institutionalized. The woman’s mother appeared to suffer little.
Mom and I agreed the greatest sin was committed by the mother, who cared more about outward appearances than other people.
Unfortunately, I observed this same sin in Ronald Reagan. After a friend talked me into voting for him on the basis of the abortion issue, it quickly became clear Reagan was an actor who’d played Christians for suckers and had no intention of doing anything about the abortion issue. That’s assuming he could.
Constitutional scholars say even if the Supreme Court were stacked with pro-life justices, most justices are reluctant to overturn precedent. Of the four current conservative justices, only Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia have expressed a willingness to overturn Roe vs. Wade.
Even if the Supreme Court succeeded in getting those five votes, this would only throw the abortion issue back to individual states. Ever drive to Wyoming to buy illegal fireworks? A pro-life state can’t decide not to honor the abortion a woman received in a pro-choice state.
Long before Roe vs. Wade, there were abortions in Reagan’s hometown. While I admire those who adopt, volunteer at crisis pregnancy clinics and unconditionally support their unwed pregnant daughters, I can’t imagine how anyone could be suckered into believing they’re preventing abortions by voting pro-life.
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