My letter to the editor in June pointed out the extremism on both sides of the political ledger (“Extremists on both political sides,” Our Readers Views, June 17). Reproductive rights and gun rights are two prime examples of this political polarization.
Reproductive rights have emerged as a hot-button issue for Democrats while Republican candidates appear to be retreating after backlash from abortion rights voters. I do not believe life begins at conception and I feel rape and incest victims qualify for elective abortions, but I am horrified that what are termed “late-term abortions,” when a fetus is fully viable, can be done on an elective basis in some states when no overriding medical reason exists to terminate a pregnancy.
The data regarding how many late-term abortions are performed is also unclear. Two groups that track abortion data, the Centers for Disease Control and the Guttmacher Institute (a Planned Parenthood affiliate) do not even agree on the number and types of abortions performed each year in the U.S.
For me, other issues will drive how I vote: protecting voter rights, saving marriage equality, fixing our crumbling infrastructure and preventing another domestic terrorist attack like the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
For me, that last one surpasses abortion as my hot-button issue.
