Terry Schiavo has been in a coma for 13 years. After several court battles, a judge granted her husband the right to remove her feeding tube so she could die a natural death. However, Schiavo’s parents believed that she was somewhat responsive and pleaded with Florida lawmakers to order the feeding tube be put back in place, which they did.
Now comes the twist. Terry’s husband, Michael Schiavo, is engaged to a woman who is pregnant with the couple’s second child. Terry’s parents believe Michael Schiavo wants his wife to die so he can cash in her life insurance policy and get married. That’s more interesting than the “Salem Serial Killer!” And this is a real life story! So does this issue illustrate conservative “authoritarianism” or does it show how one man’s selfish desires call for government interference? I’d say the latter, and anyone with a conscience would have to agree.
Let’s move on to the government’s restriction of late term abortions. This is a law that is long overdue. It’s not like the ban will take away a woman’s “right to choose;” it’s just making them choose sooner, so no one’s losing any rights here. Partial birth abortions are the most brutal kind. The baby is partially delivered and then his or her skull is pierced and the brain is sucked out. Yeah, it sounds vicious, but it is legal in this country. Why not just make it legal to throw babies in the dumpster? Mate argues that “It is practically unheard of for a government to restrict a medical procedure without a medical reason to do so,” but what’s medical about murder?
So is our Republican government taking away our personal freedoms? No. Quite the contrary, it’s granting freedoms to those who wouldn’t otherwise have a say. There’s no hypocrisy in that; in fact, conservatives are giving individual rights to (potential) citizens rather than taking them away. They’re speaking for those who don’t have a voice, and that’s the kind of government I want running my country.