|
Issue: Abortion
Date: October 7, 2004
Author: Ken Larsen
I was looking at your website, and I couldn't find any information about
your stance on the abortion issue. Where does the PC party stand?
[email inquiry]
-------
Response:
Dear [Inquirer],
I hold the title of
Moderator of the Personal Choice Party of Utah, but nobody, including
me, is authorized to speak for the Party. The platform of the Party is just
two words, "Personal Choice." Each individual member and candidate is then
free, and responsible, to decide what that means to them, personally. I can
see some members interpreting "personal choice" to mean that the baby should
be free to decide whether to be born alive or to be still born. I can see
others giving the "personal choice" to the mother in whose body the baby
lives. You are free to take either view and nobody in the Personal Choice
Party has the authority to tell you what you must say or believe to be a
true Personal Choicer.
Personally, I don't have a problem with that because it means people on both
sides of the abortion issue can find others with whom they agree and work
for their beliefs within the party structure. If we disagree on the abortion
issue, we are still free to find other personal choice issues on which we
agree and work together to make them happen. As a party, we refuse to be
divided on individual issues. We tolerate where we disagree so we can
cooperate where we agree. Part of the notion of Personal Choice is that we
do not think for others, or allow others to think for us. For many
Americans, this is a new and strange political strategy. But once they get
it, a light goes on and they say, "Yeah, that's for me." And, it's okay if
it's not for you.
Having said all that, my personal view is that a woman's body is her
sovereign territory and that she should be free to choose how to deal with
another human within her territory, just as sovereign countries should be
free to choose how to deal with their own citizens. With all my respect for
a woman's sovereignty over her body, I am personally against abortion for
medical, emotional, and yes, spiritual reasons. I would plead for the life
of the unborn, but never use coercion to enforce my personal beliefs on the
mother.
Thank you for your question,
Ken Larsen
|