GOP’s role in abortion rights

While there is really nothing to dispute in the Tribune Editorial Board’s Aug. 17 editorial noting how out of step Republicans are on the abortion issue, there is a lot of irony at the heart of the overall abortion issue in this country.

For the record, one of the first statewide pro-abortion rights laws was signed by Republican Gov. Ronald Reagan in 1967, six full years before Roe vs. Wade was approved by a 7-2 Supreme Court vote. Of the seven approving justices, five were appointed by Republican presidents. I kid you not.

Justice Harry Blackmun, who wrote the majority opinion for Roe, was a lifelong Republican, appointed to the court by Richard Nixon, as were Justices Lewis Powell Jr. and Warren Burger. Two other consenting justices, William Brennan Jr. and Potter Stewart, were appointed by Republican Dwight Eisenhower. The two approving justices appointed by a Democratic president were Thurgood Marshall (Lyndon Johnson), and William Douglas (Franklin Roosevelt).

What all this boils down to is the “pro-choice” policies, as pioneered by Reagan and supported by Roe, were primarily Republican policies. Unfortunately, liberals and moderates have done an extremely poor job of getting this news out to the public.

While I’m venting, I’ve long wondered why pro-abortion rights advocates have for nearly half a century allowed the anti-abortion rights crowd to be labeled “pro-life.” Having the two sides designated as “pro-life” versus “pro-choice” is mixing kumquats and kiwis — it’s really “anti-choice” versus “pro-choice,” so why grant the opposition a public relations advantage? There is more than a little irony in that the party that long touted individual liberty has done a 180 since Roe, though there does seem to be a strong possibility Republicans will be paying quite a price for their hypocrisy down the road as the recent Ohio vote indicates.

— Jerrold Larsen Buerer, Woodruff, Wisconsin