The one-issue voter

First things first, though. To respond to Vickie's climate question, North Carolina summers can be BRUTAL. I remember visiting one year in August and I could barely breathe the air was so thick. So yes, the humidity will be a problem. To you and to MadAnne, the community garden suggestion is one I'd thought of as well. I'll have to train myself to actually go to it and work in it, kind of like a gym. On the other hand, it could be years before we get there and I might not be able to work in a garden. People do slow down as they age – I certainly have!

Now, on to the subject of this post. Here in southern West Virginia I hear of a lot of Democrats who will vote against President Obama because of King Coal. There is a small subset, however, whose major issue is abortion. To them, if you're pro-choice, you're pro-abortion, period. Nothing could be further from the truth.

NO ONE IS PRO-ABORTION.

I was in the audience when Candidate Obama campaigned in Beckley, West Virginia, in 2008, and he bravely tackled the topic. He called for a meeting of the minds back then, when he was a bit more starry-eyed (so was I!) and hopey-changey. He felt there was a place where we could meet in the middle. He spoke about adoption, education and contraception.

Ah, contraception. Somehow being against abortion has morphed into also being against contraception. How did that happen? I blame the Tea Party takeover, a bunch of ultra-conservative white men who claim to be Christians and who have led their followers down a most destructive path. (You're not surprised I feel this way, are you?)

I grew up in a time when abortion was legal in only a few states. It was expensive to get there and expensive to have one, but they were available. If you couldn't afford to travel, you could find someone who would attempt to take care of you, or you could have the baby and give it up for adoption or you could marry the guy. (If you hadn't been raped.) Birth control pills became available in the U.S. when I was in junior high school. Unplanned pregnancies were, I presume, a bit more common prior to the early '60s.

We have, thankfully, progressed to a period of time where abortion is a safe, legal medical procedure. Should you want one, that is your decision to make. The risks associated with legal abortion are minimal. Thank the Supreme Court for that.

Reducing the availability of free or low-cost contraception (by defunding Planned Parenthood, as conservatives have vowed to do) would most certainly increase the number of unplanned pregnancies. That's just simple logic. An increase in the number of unplanned pregnancies would result in either an increase in the number of abortions performed (assuming abortions are still legal) OR an increase in the number of children to be cared for.

At the same time conservatives want to defund Planned Parenthood, they want to turn Medicaid over to already-strapped states. They want to reduce aid to dependent children. They want to reduce educational spending. Smaller government is better government!, they shout and rail and yell.

Unless you happen to be poor. And pregnant. And unable to care for a child who didn't ask to be born. A fertilized egg is not a child. It is, as the young folks says, what it is: a fertilized egg.

My personal opinion on the abortion issue doesn't matter. You can correctly deduce that I'm pro-choice. But I most definitely am also pro-life.

I am PRO the life of the mother. I am PRO health care for all. I am PRO education. I am PRO the availability of healthful food and enough of it.

Don't tell me you're pro-life if you also believe in gutting Medicaid and Planned Parenthood. In doing so you prove to me that you're really only pro-birth.