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Tue Sep 28, 2010 at 10:01 PM CDT
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| The culture wars have been largely absent from the national debate over the last few years. However, over the course of the last several months the culture wars have begun to heat up over the debates over immigration, religion, and gay rights. Among the issues that has been absent from the national debate has been reproductive rights, although abortion has been a secondary issue in some of the debates. In the campaign for Congressional District 17 there are several differences between the candidates, and the differences between the candidates on reproductive rights might be the most stark.
While Congressman Chet Edwards has a moderate voting record on several issues, Edwards has been reliably progressive in supporting reproductive rights and protecting a woman's right to choose. According to Project Vote Smart, Edwards has received high marks on legislative report cards released by pro-choice organizations for his voting record on reproductive rights. NARAL Pro-Choice America resented rated Edwards' voting record as supporting reproductive rights 100% in 2009, and Edwards supported the interests of Planned Parenthood 85% of the time in 2008. From 2007-2008 the National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association rated Edwards has supporting reproductive rights 100%. Edwards has vote for protecting women's reproductive rights on several key pieces of legislation.
Edwards voted against the so-called Stupak Amendment (H.AMDT.509) in the health care reform legislation that not only prevents federal fund from being used to provide women with reproductive health care through federally funded programs, but also prevented women from receiving reproductive health care in private insurance plans if they used tax credits or federal subsidies. In 2006 Edwards vote against the so called "Abortion Pain Bill" (HR 6099) which would have mandated that a physician provide a woman seeking to terminate a pregnancy medically questionable and medically inaccurate information. In 2005 Edwards vote for an amendment (H.AMDT.209) that would have lifted the ban on privately funded abortions at US military facilities overseas, a ban that prevents women from having the choice to terminate a pregnancy who are serving their country in uniform.
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| According to Bill Flores campaign site, he believes that "life begins at conception and every life has a soul." Flores also states that "government policies should be focused on the protection of this innocent life" and that he will always vote against reproductive rights if elected to Congress. In a letter of endorsement, the National Right to Life Committee cited Bill as a "strong advocate for life" and his "commitment to renewing a culture of life, not only in Texas, but throughout our nation and in the U.S. Congress." The NRLC joins other major pro life organizations, Texas Right to Life, Concerned Women of America, and the Texas Alliance for Life in supporting Flores over Edwards. However, conservative bloggers question his pro-life credentials for supporting Hillary Clinton and Kay Bailey Hutchinson.
Flores position on reproductive rights leaves more questions than answers. Since Flores believes that "life begins at conception," is Flores against allowing abortions in the case of incest or rape? Is Flores against abortion if the pregnancy endangers the life of the mother? If Flores is anti-abortion does he support public policies that reduce the number of abortions, such as comprehensive sex education and providing birth control as part of reproductive health care? Since Flores was endorsed by the NRLC is he against embryonic stem cell research that could potentially find cures to debilitating diseases? How extreme are Flores views on reproductive rights?
According to a recent Gallup poll, sightly more Americans self-identify as "pro-life" than "pro-choice," 47% to 45%. Over the last two decades Americans have been relatively evenly divided between those that consider themselves pro-choice and those that consider themselves prolife. However, according to another Gallup poll, it is clear that the vast majority of Americans think that abortion should remain legal. Over the last three decades never more than 21% of Americans think abortion should be illegal in all cases, while nearly 80% of Americans think that abortion should remain legal in either all cases or specific cases. Chet Edwards support for women's reproductive rights is clearly in the mainstream, while Flores' extremist views are clearly not what the majority of Americans believe.
Political and Social Thought...
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