Giuliani, the Republican Party and a Woman’s Right to Choose
By Randy Moody | Related entries in 2008 Election, Abortion, NewsRandy Moody is a lifelong Republican and a nationally recognized volunteer leader within Planned Parenthood. He is a Washington attorney and lobbyist who is a Vietnam veteran and was a top aide to three Republican members of Congress and a Republican governor. Active in the Republican Party, he has been a county chairman, member of a state party executive committee, delegate to a Republican National Convention and candidate for lieutenant. governor in his home state, Nebraska. Active in Planned Parenthood at the national level, he has served on Planned Parenthood Federation of America’s board of directors, the board of its political arm, the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, and on its Political Action Committee. At the local level, he has been a Planned Parenthood affiliate board president and an escort for women seeking abortions at the clinic in Lincoln, Nebraska.
For too long, moderate Republicans have been silenced by party leadership who has pandered to the far right wing. The bullyboy braying of talk radio hosts and self-righteous right-wingers have cowed Republican candidates into acting against their political instincts while the base of the party has been shrinking and shrinking. While expounding the “big tent” theory of party building, leaders of the party were really constructing an outhouse.
How are the real party faithful now handling a presidential candidate who says abortion is a woman’s choice and not something that the government should be involved in? Why, they have put him in the lead! Should we be surprised? Certainly not. Those of us Republicans who have hung in there, not become independents, and withstood the torments of the intolerant are the real base of the Republican Party. We know that traditional Republican principles do not include sanctioning government intrusion into the bedroom or encouraging extremists to tell us whether or when we can become parents. Real Republican ideals include limited government, personal responsibility, individual freedom â€â€? and choice.
Some seem startled that Republicans support Planned Parenthood. But why should people be surprised? Hundreds of thousands of Republicans are donors to and volunteers, leaders and patients of Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood is an organization that for 90 years has enabled Americans to make choices about the size of their families and their sexual and reproductive health. As an advocate in Congress, the state legislatures and the courts, it has worked to protect those individual choices from government interference. Planned Parenthood has long been protecting traditional Republican values.
So now, with this pro-choice candidate in the Republican mix, there seems to be an opportunity for a sea change in the Republican Party. A candidate for president who respects traditional Republican values, separation of church and state, and a woman’s right to choose is leading the pack and energizing the real “base.”
This entry was posted on Monday, May 21st, 2007 and is filed under 2008 Election, Abortion, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
May 21st, 2007 at 10:56 am
Once the right wing of the republican party see the light – the self evident, scientific fact that an unborn foetus is not a human person – then conservatives will be united in paving the true path for true conservative governing; one that allows in-vitro screening of embryos for desired charachteristics like attractive facial features, a new eugenics movement where genetic diseases like Down’s syndrome, cystic fibrosis, and cleft palettes will be wiped out due to selective abortion, and hormone therapy that will be used by pregnant women to rid the world of homosexuality forever. After all, it is her body, so it is her choice. Randy Moody and other conservatives like him will lead the Republicans to what I like to call a “Courageous New Planet,” that we can all look forward too.
May 22nd, 2007 at 5:34 pm
If Planned Parenthood took a centerist position on abortion, I’d be supportive of them. For the most part, they do good work, but their support for unlimited abortion leaves me cold.