Bush's stance on abortion wrong

Lyndsey Shinoda

The race for the presidency remains a heated battle between Republican candidate Texas Gov. George W. Bush and Democratic candidate Vice President Al Gore. In Sunday's polls, Bush had 44 percent of the expected vote compared to Gore's 42 percent of likely voters in a CBS News-New York Times poll according to press releases.

It has been widely reported that Bush, who is pro-life, plans to overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that made abortion legal. I cannot understand how any female in her right mind would vote for a man who would strip a woman of her right to choose.

"I will do everything in my power to restrict abortions," said George W. Bush in an Oct. 22, 1994 Dallas Morning News article.

I do respect that some people are pro-life, but that is a personal decision. Why should a man, who won't ever know what it's like to be pregnant, have the authority to control a highly emotional decision for a woman? Bush will never know how that feels.

If Bush is voted into office and abortion is made illegal, the amount of illegal abortions will increase. It would result in the deaths of many women who will be forced into having unsafe abortions.

I once saw a bumper sticker that said, "Keep the U.S. out of my Uterus." I couldn't agree more.

As a female and registered Democrat, I am planning to vote for Gore. I don't necessarily agree with all of Gore's views, and I am especially opposed to wife Tipper's censorship programs, but there is no doubt in my mind that the vice president has more integrity in his little finger than Bush has in his entire being.

Gore has said that he personally is not pro-choice, but he won't take that right away from women.

Bush also takes a preventive measure, starting with sexual education in schools. His solution is a program called TAUM, or teaching abstinence until marriage. He only supports federal funding for sex ed if it involves abstinence, with scare tactics telling kids that if they have sexual intercourse before marriage, they will die from AIDS or some other horrible sexually transmitted disease.

On the other hand, Gore supports a more comprehensive approach to sex ed., involving safe sex. Let's be realistic here. Since kids are going to have sex they might as well be taught the methods of birth control.

Bush is also for the death penalty. Since being elected governor of Texas Nov. 8, 1994, Bush has sanctioned150 deaths. So his conscience tells him that abortion is killing unborn babies, but killing adults is okay? That is one of the most hypocritical things I've ever heard. If Bush was against the death penalty and against abortion, that would be one thing, but who is he to say which deaths are admissible?

I hope that voters, namely females, will consider these things when they step into the booth. Do you really want the U.S. in your uterus? I didn't think so.

Lyndsey Shinoda is a print journalism major and a staff writer for the Daily Forty-Niner.