Constitutional rights

Ed Springer of Sherwood posits that Trump is “flawed,” but not as much so as Hillary Clinton, or Americans would have voted for her. Well, they did. Over three million more Americans voted for Clinton than for Trump, even with the backing Trump received from WikiLeaks and Russian provocateurs. Without the antiquated and anti-democratic electoral college system, I believe there would be no President Trump to support or rail against.

Mr. Springer also asserts that if Billy Graham had been on the ballot, “we all would have voted for him.” Not all of us, Ed; but I wish he had been on the ballot with Trump and Clinton. He surely would have won the evangelical vote, and President Clinton would be in the White House today. Where was God when we needed her?

Springer states that there is no Democratic presidential candidate he would trust with “our unborn children.” From what divine source does he obtain the right to use the plural possessive on behalf of me or any other citizen? The unborn do not belong to anyone. There is no collective uteri. A woman’s body is her own. She is not chattel. Nor should she be the subject of unjust laws restricting her right to a safe, legal abortion. No woman should be forced to give birth.

The circumstances of the pregnancy—rape, incest or the life of the mother—so often cited, should be irrelevant. As Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote, “A woman who exercises her constitutionally protected right to terminate a pregnancy is not a ‘mother.’”

As red states continue to restrict and criminalize a woman’s right to control her own body, what other constitutional rights are in the conservative crosshairs? When will we no longer be able to read what we want, say what we believe, or vote for whom we choose? At what altar will we be forced to bow?

DAVID ELI COCKCROFT

Little Rock