Saturday, July 06, 2013

LTE: 'Abortion should never have been politicized'

On July 2, 2013, my step-dad Calvin T. Lucy was the CORRESPONDENT OF THE DAY for the Richmond Times-Dispatch. Abortion ... does it need to be politicized?

Editor, Times-Dispatch:

Recently, on your Editorial and Op/Ed pages, two writers came to essentially the same conclusion concerning the belief that the abortion issue can never be resolved politically. In a letter, Read F. Goode Jr. stated, “The sheer fact abortion has remained a front page, red-hot issue every single day since its legalization is de facto evidence that some issues cannot reach a national consensus.” On the Op/Ed page, Robert Sarvis was quoted on several issues, including abortion. He stated: “The absolutism on the (abortion) issue is ruining our political discourse. I think most voters would like some relief from the demonization and over-the-top rhetoric coming from both sides.”

The desired relief has been staring thinking voters in the face for several years. The politicization of abortion has been one of the most terrible political errors in recent history; in that it will never be resolvable on the national, state and local levels simply because it is a highly personal issue resolvable one case at a time only by collaboration between a woman, her spouse, her pastor and her doctor.

The conclusion and relief is that wise Republicans will immediately take steps to remove all aspects of abortion from political platforms, stating that it should never have been politicized in the first place, regardless of how rosy and vote-rich it appeared to be. Wise people will recall the Serenity Prayer: “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” That wisdom has been in short supply for decades.

Calvin T. Lucy.
Midlothian.

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