Late last night, I got a tweet from the twitter account of Vicki Vasques, who is the Republican opponent to my state delegate here in Virginia's 45th in Alexandria. It was inviting people to meet Bob McDonnell, the Republican candidate for Governor, and his wife Maureen, at a coffee today about one mile from my house. I smelled an opportunity. There is no way in hell I am ever going to vote for Bob McDonnell, and I wasn't going to pretend that I would. However, I was willing to listen to his answer on one question that I really wanted to ask, just to see what he had to say. I make no pretense about my intentions. I expected stonewalling and obfuscation, and that's what I got, but I pushed. And pushed. And pushed some more. I was right up in his face. I was obnoxious. I was irritating. But I got my answer.
I asked the same question of Creigh Deeds, the Democratic candidate, at a Women for Deeds event in Annandale a couple of weeks ago. He answered intelligently and respectfully, without any obfuscation. He understood the question. He had thought about it. It had occurred to him before. Not so with Bob McDonnell.
The question was this, roughly quoted: "Lawyer to lawyer, I want to ask you about Roe v. Wade. Although I agree with the ultimate decison, I don't necessarily agree with the entire legal analysis. I recognize the right to privacy, but I think the Supreme Court missed something. Specifically, do you think abortion is really a First Amendment issue? After all, the question of when life begins is essentially a religious one. The old testament, in Genesis, can be interpreted to mean that life begins at first breath. In the new testament, it says, "I knew you before you were born," which can be interpreted to mean that life begins at conception, or even before then, theoretically. On top of that, not everyone in the U.S. is Christian, so other religious texts would apply, and no religious texts would apply at all for non-believers. So, how can we pass laws restricting abortion based on the theory that life begins at conception when that theory, if put into law, violates the First Amendment? Would you sign such a law as Governor?"
Deeds readily acknowledged that I had a point, and he had thought about it before. We agreed some people deflected the issue by referring to the science about conception, which doesn't answer the First Amendment question. He agreed to consider my concerns further and the implications they had for Virginia law. Deeds is pro-choice and has no intention of signing any anti-abortion laws, so that was a non-issue. He's a Christian too, but has never done anything legislatively to make me suspect he might try to use elected office to force his religious beliefs on the people he represents.
McDonnell, on the other hand, tried to give me a non-answer by talking about money for pregnant girls who want to stay in college, parental consent for abortion for minors, etc. I was not at all satisfied. He was avoiding the question. McDonnell deflected into a "free speech" argument, even though I had specifically said it was a "freedom of religion" or more to the point, a "freedom FROM religion" First Amendment issue and not free speech, so I called him on that too. McDonnell then admitted that in over 20 years of being an attorney, he had never thought about it that way. That is inexcusable to me. He did agree, when pressed, that the Bible and biblical law don't apply to everyone and that not everyone in this state is a Christian, so anti-abortion laws based on "life begins at conception" are an affront to the freedom of religion of non-Christians. He admits his Catholic faith influences his position, and also admits that it would be wrong to force that position, which is influenced by his Catholic faith, on others. He stated to me that he would NOT do that if elected. That means he CAN'T be a so called "pro-life" governor and keep the promise that he made to me this morning. Either he lied to me this morning, or he is lying to his supporters. Somehow, I'm guessing I'll be the one who gets screwed if he's elected.
I tweeted live from the event and my thoughts afterward, in a satirical way, as is my twitter style, which you can read by following me on twitter where I am "SatiricalAlexandria" or "SatirclAlxndria" for short. I joined the progressives on twitter so I am listed there too. I'm curious what others think of the "abortion as a First Amendment Issue" question.