At Times and Seasons, today’s discussion is about citizenship and Mormons’ obligation to vote.
One of the respondents argues that
Convince the Democrats to stop pandering to the radical elements in the abortion debate and I guarantee you we’d see more members voting Democrat. This has nothing to do with certain Saints being brainless – most of them feel they’re voting their conscience. To them, one party stands for moral values and strong families, and the other doesn’t. They don’t feel like they *need* to think that hard. (Please, nobody argue with *me* over this. I’m describing other people.)
The Saints haven’t lost their will to engage in politics as much as the Democrats lost the Saints.
The fact of the matter is that Democratic presidents have been reducing abortion at much higher rates than George W. Bush. During Bill Clinton’s presidency, abortion declined more than four and five times faster than during the low and high points of the Bush administration.
There are more effective tools to fight abortion than prohibition. When women are free they are less likely to have an abortion. In practical terms, bread and butter issues are a big component of people’s liberty. When people know how to pay their bills because their incomes keep up with inflation, women tend to choose life.
Whenever Republicans govern, the buying power of 40% of Americans declines. As a result, blue collar Americans become less likely to marry and to have children.
If you are interested in impractical symbolism, by all means, continue to vote Republican. However, that vote would implicate you in more abortions. Anyone who wants to reduce the number of abortions, needs to vote for Democrats.
The other element of abortion reduction is, of course, education. Every other western democracy has better sex education and less abortions than the United States. Our irrational approach to sex education is a major contributor to the highest teen pregnancy rates in the developed world.
It seems to me that the religious fundamentalists interference in the biology curriculum has been counterproductive with respect to abortion.