Republicans had abortions back in the '60s

Thought for the day

Back when I entered USC in 1966, my guess is 80 to 90 percent of the university's undergrads were Republicans.  In those days, football was king; but, so was something else.  Sex.  Sex when Playboy magazine arrived in the mail.  Sex while watching grainy, black & white, pornographic movies.  And sex if you were lucky enough to actually have it.  

For most, the latter did not end in unplanned pregnancies.  But for a few unlucky students, it did happen.  Of the four couples I knew back then who ended up in a "family way," I only know of one couple who dropped out of school, got married, and raised their child.  Two of the other "couples" had abortions and one suffered a miscarriage.  

Statistically speaking, there is a chance one of those couples leaned politically left, but my guess is all of them, including their parents, were conservative Republicans.  All of which leads me to ask two questions:  First, if the same 21-year-olds still are alive today, are these 70-something seniors pro-life or pro-choice?  After asking several of my conservative SC fraternity brothers, they confirmed my suspicion:  Yes, they are Republicans and, yes, they oppose abortion.

I understand why parents wanted to make their daughters' "problem" go away.  Ditto the parents of the boys who sanitized their sons' "situation."  That is what parents did for their kids in 1968. 

So here's my second question:  How can these card-carrying Republicans, who had abortions more than half a century ago, justify remaining silent knowing that "trigger" states, like Oklahoma, Indiana and South Carolina, for example, plan to prosecute and jail women who terminate their unwanted pregnancies (just like they did back when Richard Nixon was elected president)?

I realize politics makes for strange bedfellows, but if Roe v. Wade is overturned mark my words:  Millions of women will not be allowed to make the same decisions about their futures like those who came before them in the 1960s.  That means they will be treated like second-class citizens and that is wrong.  More importantly, it is unAmerican.

-DF