Campaign issues get sidetracked

Blair K. Williamson Albemarle County
Published: September 20, 2008

Although I respect the different views and opinions of people in the community I feel compelled to react to the inflammatory phrasing in a letter to the editor —“ Obama unqualified on all fronts,” Sept. 15 (The Daily Progress).  The author refers to the termination of a pregnancy, which right wing evangelicals term “partial term abortion.”

The term “partial-birth abortion” is a cleverly invented phrase, designed to elicit horror and describing something that doesn’t exist. There is, however, a procedure referred to as “late-term abortion,” which is used only in medical emergencies, not as a method of birth control.

Additionally, I think you would be hard pressed to find any pro-choice person who is in favor of abortion as a method of family planning, but it certainly has its place and needs to remain a safe option for women having to make very difficult decisions.
As a lifelong supporter of Planned Parenthood and believer in a woman’s right to choose, I urge the community not to let these hysterical attempts at political pandering get in the way of the pressing issues facing this country.

We seem to be losing sight of the really important realities that face us all every day: two wars, rising health-care costs, the continuing devaluation of the dollar, collapsing financial institutions, the mounting U.S. deficit, the increasing jobless rates, to name a few.

As citizens of this commonwealth, we have an opportunity to make a real difference in this election. I urge voters to put aside the fear mongering and the evangelical and hysterical fight songs of this campaign and look for the candidates’ ideas and qualifications on the pressing economic and foreign-policy issues at hand.