{"id":20007,"date":"2012-08-13T11:25:08","date_gmt":"2012-08-13T15:25:08","guid":{"rendered":"\/news\/?p=20007"},"modified":"2013-04-03T23:50:07","modified_gmt":"2013-04-04T03:50:07","slug":"the-attacks-on-paul-ryans-pro-life-principles-begin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/the-attacks-on-paul-ryans-pro-life-principles-begin\/","title":{"rendered":"The attacks on Paul Ryan’s pro-life principles begin"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

\"\"<\/a>Though most of the political squabbling over vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan will concern his controversial fiscal policies, the fact that the Wisconsin congressman is also staunchly pro-life<\/a> guarantees he\u2019ll be targeted with a secondary narrative about being an anti-choice extremist.<\/p>\n

Sure enough, the Daily Beast<\/em>\u2019s Michelle Goldberg has already deployed one of the first efforts on that front<\/a>:<\/p>\n

He believes ending a pregnancy should be illegal even when it results from rape or incest, or endangers a woman\u2019s health. He was a cosponsor of the Sanctity of Human Life Act, a federal bill defining fertilized eggs as human beings, which, if passed, would criminalize some forms of birth control and in vitro fertilization. <\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cExtreme\u201d in the narrow, strategic sense of how far from majority opinion these views are? Maybe<\/a>. But extreme in the sense of being far removed from reason and justice? Not at all. If the unborn are live humans with unalienable rights, then they don\u2019t automatically become something else just because of a pregnancy\u2019s circumstances or the specific technique that endangers them. Ryan\u2019s views are consistent, not crazy.<\/p>\n

On economic issues, he\u2019s a hardcore libertarian who once said, \u201c[T]he reason I got involved in public service, by and large, if I had to credit one thinker\u2026it would be Ayn Rand. And the fight we are in here, make no mistake about it, is a fight of individualism versus collectivism.\u201d Yet when it comes to women\u2019s control of their bodies, he quickly turns into a statist. \u201cIn the state of nature\u2014the \u2018law of the jungle\u2019\u2014the determination of who \u2018qualifies\u2019 as a human being is left to private individuals or chosen groups,\u201d he wrote in a 2010 essay titled \u201cThe Cause of Life Can\u2019t Be Severed From the Cause of Freedom.\u201d \u201cIn a justly organized community, however, government exists to secure the right to life and the other human rights that follow from that primary right.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I don\u2019t know if Goldberg really doesn\u2019t understand the philosophical labels she\u2019s juggling or simply expects her readers not to, but this alleged contradiction is a complete fabrication. It\u2019s almost surreal – not only does she not bother to explain what\u2019s inconsistent, but Ryan\u2019s explanation – \u201cgovernment exists to secure the right to life and the other human rights that follow from that primary right\u201d – is right there in the very line she\u2019s quoting!<\/p>\n

It\u2019s about 1,500 words long, but the word \u201cwoman\u201d doesn\u2019t appear in it once. Nor does the word \u201cmother.\u201d To him, a woman\u2019s claim to bodily autonomy or self-determination doesn\u2019t merit even cursory consideration. Here\u2019s his analogy: \u201cThe car which I exercised my freedom of choice to purchase\u2026does not \u2018qualify\u2019 for protection of human rights. I can drive it, lend it, kick it, sell it, or junk it, at will. On the other hand, the widow who lives next door does \u2018qualify\u2019 as a person, and the government must secure her human rights, which cannot be abandoned to anyone\u2019s arbitrary will.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Yes, how dare Ryan speak in gender-neutral terms (apparently \u201cwidow\u201d and \u201cher<\/em> human rights\u201d don\u2019t count) while discussing a right possessed by males and females equally! It\u2019s true that Ryan\u2019s essay doesn\u2019t address abortion apologists\u2019 new favorite rationalization for murder, the bodily autonomy argument<\/a>, but that doesn\u2019t invalidate his observations about the status of the unborn and his critique of pro-choicers like Goldberg who sidestep it, which is a far more glaring omission for the simple fact that if the unborn weren\u2019t alive or human after all, there would be no abortion controversy.<\/p>\n

Next, Goldberg highlights Ryan\u2019s opposition to exceptions for partial-birth abortion: \u201cRyan said he opposes\u00a0abortion,\u00a0period,\u201d reported the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel<\/em>. \u201cHe said any exceptions to a \u2018partial-birth\u2019\u00a0abortion\u00a0ban would make that ban meaningless.\u201d But here again, Ryan is correct – seemingly \u201cmoderate\u201d pro-choice accommodations such as health exceptions tend to define “health” so broadly<\/a> that it can mean almost anything.<\/p>\n

According to another Journal Sentinel article, he \u201cwould let states decide what criminal penalties would be attached to abortions. Ryan said he has never specifically advocated jailing women who have abortions or doctors who perform them, but added, \u2018If it\u2019s illegal, it\u2019s illegal.\u2019\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Here we see one of the key reasons American politics remains so bitter and understanding seems so unreachable: liberals simply don\u2019t understand conservatives and refuse to consider the possibility that there might be some kernel of sincerity or insight behind our beliefs. To Goldberg, leaving abortion punishment to the states make Ryan extreme because she can\u2019t fathom that there\u2019s anything worthwhile about federalism that he might really believe in, such as the wisdom of limiting the federal government to a narrow range of defined purposes, or the fact that federalism actually makes national politics less<\/em> extreme<\/a> by deferring society\u2019s most heated issues to state and local control, so Alabama doesn\u2019t have to live by California\u2019s values (or vice-versa), and people can escape the effects of one state\u2019s decisions by moving to another.<\/p>\n

Considering the deception<\/a> Team Obama has already hit Romney with and the importance<\/a> they place on the \u201cWar on Women\u201d theme, Paul Ryan should expect much more of this between now and Election Day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

More “anti-choice extremist” caterwauling doubtless to come.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54,"featured_media":20002,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe attacks on Paul Ryan's pro-life principles begin - Live Action News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/the-attacks-on-paul-ryans-pro-life-principles-begin\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The attacks on Paul Ryan's pro-life principles begin - Live Action News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"More "anti-choice extremist" caterwauling doubtless to come.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/the-attacks-on-paul-ryans-pro-life-principles-begin\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Live Action News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-08-13T15:25:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-04-04T03:50:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/paul-ryan.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"300\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Calvin Freiburger\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@liveaction\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@liveaction\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Calvin Freiburger\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/the-attacks-on-paul-ryans-pro-life-principles-begin\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/the-attacks-on-paul-ryans-pro-life-principles-begin\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Calvin Freiburger\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/6eb2bf94c8064b71953ba137bf413c4d\"},\"headline\":\"The attacks on Paul Ryan’s pro-life principles begin\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-08-13T15:25:08+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-04-04T03:50:07+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/the-attacks-on-paul-ryans-pro-life-principles-begin\/\"},\"wordCount\":906,\"commentCount\":49,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Politics\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/the-attacks-on-paul-ryans-pro-life-principles-begin\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/the-attacks-on-paul-ryans-pro-life-principles-begin\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/the-attacks-on-paul-ryans-pro-life-principles-begin\/\",\"name\":\"The attacks on Paul Ryan's pro-life principles begin - 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Calvin is an editor and administrator for TheFederalistPapers.org, and his work has appeared on NewsRealBlog.com, PatriotUpdate.com, LifeNews.com, LifeSiteNews.com, RightWisconsin.com, AmericanThinker.com, Stream.org, AmericanClarion.org, and more. Please check out his official website, ConservativeStandards.com. 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