Goldwater for Abortion, Against Religion in Politics

[Tom Paine 1949]

There is also a more personal side to the story of Barry Goldwater’s libertarian belief that the government and the Republican Party should stay out of interfering in often difficult decisions about contraceptive use and abortion between a woman and her doctor….

Barry Goldwater’s wife, “Peggy,” was one of the earliest and most prominent advocates of birth control in Arizona and the SouthWest. She met in 1937 with Margaret Sanger as part of the fight against local “Comstock Laws” that outlawed publication of books and circulation of pamphlets about sex, birth control, and sale of contraceptives. Together with the future Senator, she had four children: Joanne, Barry Jr., Michael, and Peggy Jr.

In 1956 Joanne, Barry Goldwater's eldest daughter became pregnant while still in college at the State University in Tempe, Arizona. In a later interview, Goldwater's daughter described how she was not ready to become a mother at the age of twenty and instead chose to have an abortion. At the time, abortions were federally illegal. [Peggy] Goldwater and her husband arranged for an illegal abortion for their daughter in Virginia … [and] supported her daughter's decision to have an abortion and helped her throughout the process….

As a US Senator from 1953 to 1987, Goldwater … had the ability to address both the public and other politicians about the subjects he felt strongly about. Historian Mary Melcher suggests that [Peggy] Goldwater's firm and passionate stance in support of the women's reproductive rights movement influenced her husband's political views.

During his terms in the senate, Goldwater's husband voted as a libertarian, valuing individual freedom and liberty. He supported women's reproductive rights, for which he argued that issues of abortion should remain a private decision between a woman and her doctor, and should not be a political issue. Goldwater's husband's political connections furthered Goldwater's efforts in growing the organization Planned Parenthood.

— Margaret (Peggy) Goldwater (1909–1985) | The Embryo Project Encyclopedia

***

Of course Irish Catholic-born Margaret Sanger for decades herself saw contraception as far preferable to any kind of “abortion” and she saw it as an urgent need for poor women being forced to have nine, ten children — who often died early along with their tragic mothers. The Planned Parenthood movement that Goldwater’s wife Peggy ended up leading saw that the first step was to break taboos about even discussing sex. Planned Parenthood educated about “birth control” methods, encouraged research on new contraceptive measures, and fought to make contraceptives legal, convenient and available — all of which the Catholic Church (but not all Protestant churches) then strongly opposed.

Similarly, while her husband’s civil libertarian sympathies always led him to oppose his Republican Party taking a “ban abortion” position, his general sympathy for “states rights” led him to oppose “Roe vs. Wade” and early radical advocates of “Abortion on Demand.” He saw abortion as the very difficult personal decision it usually is. Only in his final term did he adopt a full “pro-choice” position — he voted in 1983 against a constitutional amendment that would have reversed Roe v. Wade and return legislative authority over abortion to the states.

 

[CarsomyrPlusSix]

T

There is also a more personal side to the story of Barry Goldwater’s libertarian belief that the government and the Republican Party should stay out of interfering in often difficult decisions about contraceptive use and abortion between a woman and her doctor….

Barry Goldwater’s wife, “Peggy,” was one of the earliest and most prominent advocates of birth control in Arizona and the SouthWest. She met in 1937 with Margaret Sanger as part of the fight against local “Comstock Laws” that outlawed publication of books and circulation of pamphlets about sex, birth control, and sale of contraceptives. Together with the future Senator, she had four children: Joanne, Barry Jr., Michael, and Peggy Jr.

In 1956 Joanne, Barry Goldwater's eldest daughter became pregnant while still in college at the State University in Tempe, Arizona. In a later interview, Goldwater's daughter described how she was not ready to become a mother at the age of twenty and instead chose to have an abortion. At the time, abortions were federally illegal. [Peggy] Goldwater and her husband arranged for an illegal abortion for their daughter in Virginia … [and] supported her daughter's decision to have an abortion and helped her throughout the process….

As a US Senator from 1953 to 1987, Goldwater … had the ability to address both the public and other politicians about the subjects he felt strongly about. Historian Mary Melcher suggests that [Peggy] Goldwater's firm and passionate stance in support of the women's reproductive rights movement influenced her husband's political views.

During his terms in the senate, Goldwater's husband voted as a libertarian, valuing individual freedom and liberty. He supported women's reproductive rights, for which he argued that issues of abortion should remain a private decision between a woman and her doctor, and should not be a political issue. Goldwater's husband's political connections furthered Goldwater's efforts in growing the organization Planned Parenthood.

— Margaret (Peggy) Goldwater (1909–1985) | The Embryo Project Encyclopedia

***

Of course Irish Catholic-born Margaret Sanger for decades herself saw contraception as far preferable to any kind of “abortion” and she saw it as an urgent need for poor women being forced to have nine, ten children — who often died early along with their tragic mothers. The Planned Parenthood movement that Goldwater’s wife Peggy ended up leading saw that the first step was to break taboos about even discussing sex. Planned Parenthood educated about “birth control” methods, encouraged research in the field, and fought to make contraceptives legal, convenient and available — all of which the Catholic Church (but not all Protestant churches) then strongly opposed.

Similarly, while her husband’s civil libertarian sympathies always led him to oppose his Republican Party taking a “ban abortion” position, his general sympathy for “states rights” led him to oppose “Roe vs. Wade” and early radical advocates of “Abortion on Demand.” He saw abortion as the very difficult personal decision it usually is. Only in his final term did he adopt a full “pro-choice” position — he voted in 1983 against a constitutional amendment that would have reversed Roe v. Wade and return legislative authority over abortion to the states.

Thanks for confirming that Goldwater, his wife, and daughter were all scum who belonged in a cell, and thus we need not worry what scum opine about anything.

 

[playtime]

T

Thanks for confirming that Goldwater, his wife, and daughter were all scum who belonged in a cell, and thus we need not worry what scum opine about anything.

why would you want anybody to decide whether or not you become a parent - including the use of contraception?

no bodily autonomy = slavery.

 

[CarsomyrPlusSix]

why would you want anybody to decide whether or not you become a parent - including the use of contraception?

no bodily autonomy = slavery.

“Bodily autonomy” isn’t a thing.

Not being allowed to kill someone else doesn’t make you a slave. That is ludicrous.

 

[whitehall]

What's the point? Is it about the RvW supreme court decision? Goldwater's wife might have been infatuated with Eugenics but she was wrong.

 

[playtime]

“Bodily autonomy” isn’t a thing.

oh ya. it shirley is.

Not being allowed to kill someone else doesn’t make you a slave. That is ludicrous.

 

[C_Clayton_Jones]

Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater, America’s leading Conservative voice for decades — an advocate of “extremism in defense of liberty” — had a deep sense of personal integrity and a genuine libertarian view on abortion.

It’s a shame that Barry Goldwater, is not around today to slap some sense into these Trump-clone Republicans who have declared an (un)holy war on a woman’s right to decide what’s best for her when pregnant.

Goldwater was an American politician, statesman, businessman, United States Air Force officer, and author who was a five-term Senator from Arizona (1953–1965, 1969–1987) and the Republican Party nominee for president in 1964.

Goldwater was himself pro-choice (also pro-gay and supported gays in the military), and his wife, Peggy, had helped to found an Arizona chapter of Planned Parenthood.

Goldwater was a classic conservative, a man of impeccable integrity, and an independent thinker. Were he alive today he’d probably kick Donald Trumps’s ass from his penthouse suite on top of Trump Towers, all the way down to the lobby and then out into the street’s gutter.

Here’s a few of the things Goldwater said over the years about about abortion.

• “A woman has a right to an abortion. That’s a decision that’s up to the pregnant woman, not up to the pope or some do-gooders or the Religious Right.”

• “Abortion is not something the Republican Party should call for the abolition of, by legal means or by any other means.”

• “There is no way in the world that abortion is going to be abolished. It has been going on ever since man and woman lived together on this earth.”

• “Men (who are anti-abortion) should keep their asses out of doctor’s offices. That’s something between the pregnant woman and her doctor.”

As I said, Goldwater was a man of integrity and principle, and we have damn few around nowadays in these craven political times when we could benefit from someone like him the most.

The Observer: The ghost of Barry Goldwater on abortion: ‘A decision that’s up to the pregnant woman’

Goldwater was at least consistent with his application of conservative dogma – often wrong, but at least consistent.

And Goldwater understood that less government was far more than just reckless, irresponsible deregulation and tax cuts.

 

[C_Clayton_Jones]

why would you want anybody to decide whether or not you become a parent - including the use of contraception?

no bodily autonomy = slavery.

True.

In essence, the Supreme Court has rendered women second-class citizens as a fact of Constitutional law for no other reason than their gender.

 

[CarsomyrPlusSix]

True.

In essence, the Supreme Court has rendered women second-class citizens as a fact of Constitutional law for no other reason than their gender.

Treating everyone the same does not equate to “second class.”

 

[playtime]

Treating everyone the same does not equate to “second class.”

forced birth in & of itself is an unequal act.

 

[CarsomyrPlusSix]

forced birth in & of itself is an unequal act.

Calling not killing someone else “forced” anything belies a sick mind, fith.

 

[playtime]

Calling not killing someone else “forced” anything belies a sick mind, fith.

lol ...

calling for raising the needed taxes for the forced post born as socialism belies a filthy hypocritical 'love the fetus, hate the child' dotard.

 

[CarsomyrPlusSix]

lol ...

calling for raising the needed taxes for the forced post born as socialism belies a filthy hypocritical 'love the fetus, hate the child' dotard.

Oh, you’re another moron who doesn’t understand the definition of “hypocrisy.”

It doesn’t in fact mean treating everyone the same. That’s actually the opposite of hypocrisy.

I can’t say that I don’t know why you pro-aborts seem to have this problem so often - it is likely because you are just.. so incredibly… dumb.

 

[Tom Paine 1949]

Treating everyone the same does not equate to “second class.”

I don’t claim to know what you are talking about here. Clearly you are
an anti-abortion fanatic. Goldwater back in his own time — and most Americans today — would disagree with you.

As for “law” and “equality,” these two classic quotes illustrate — mordantly — a little bit about the problem:

***

 

[CarsomyrPlusSix]

I don’t claim to know what you are talking about here. Clearly you are
an anti-abortion fanatic. Goldwater back in his own time — and most Americans today — would disagree with you.

As for “law” and “equality,” these two classic quotes illustrate — mordantly — a little bit about the problem:

View attachment 685061View attachment 685063

***

You are not made second class when it is illegal for you to attack and kill others in cold blood - that is already the standard for everyone else! What is there difficult to understand about that?

Moreover, for you people, abortion is already your Molochian sacrament. But your nonsense fails there too - men can already attack and kill others - we are entirely capable, physically, of going out and attacking and killing someone else in unjustified force.

 

[playtime]

Oh, you’re another moron who doesn’t understand the definition of “hypocrisy.”

i'm replying to an obvious afficionado.

It doesn’t in fact mean treating everyone the same. That’s actually the opposite of hypocrisy.

lol ...

I can’t say that I don’t know why you pro-aborts seem to have this problem so often - it is likely because you are just.. so incredibly… dumb.

nobody's 'pro abortion'.

try again.

 

[CarsomyrPlusSix]

i'm replying to an obvious afficionado.



lol ...



nobody's 'pro abortion'.

try again.

i'm replying to an obvious afficionado.

Cool - yet another word you can’t use in a sentence correctly. Must be a day of the week ending in y.

nobody's 'pro abortion'.

And yet here you are, pro-abort.

 

[Tom Paine 1949]

Thanks for confirming that Goldwater, his wife, and daughter were all scum who belonged in a cell, and thus we need not worry what scum opine about anything.

The absurd and slanderous view of this deranged religious nut, CarsomyrPlusSix , shows how correct Barry Goldwater was in warning of the danger to our country … of political parties encouraging religious fundamentalism.

Fortunately, most “religious” people are not this crazy! They most definitely do NOT see Barry Goldwater and his family, or Joe Biden, or the vast majority of Americans who support a woman’s right to choose when she is ready to to have and raise a child … as representatives of “the devil”!

As Goldwater said, such lunacy makes it impossible to maintain a democratic republic, where compromise and respect for individual rights are both crucial.

Americans can respect each other if they disagree about when a child is “born” — though this has been traditionally defined quite clearly. Same with abstract philosophical definitions about when a “human being” with independent legal rights should be recognized in society and by law.

Most ordinary Americans certainly disagree with lunatics who want to use the state to force all women to carry all unwanted pregnancies to birth against their will, screaming about “Moloch” or “God’s Wrath”.

Goldwater had at least this much … absolutely right.

 

[CarsomyrPlusSix]

this deranged religious nut

Nope.

You told us that he killed his own grandkid, that makes him a piece of shit. I don't need a religion to know that he was a piece of shit for killing his own grand kid. Maybe you do, but that your own deficiency.

Joe Biden, or the vast majority of Americans who support a woman’s right to choose when she is ready to to have and raise a child … as representatives of “the devil”!

There probably isn't a devil; Brandon is an evil piece of shit just the same, whether or not he acts in accordance with some supernatural force of evil.

respect for individual rights are both crucial.

Pro-abort filth have no respect for individual rights; if you did, you wouldn't be pro-aborts.

 

[playtime]

Cool - yet another word you can’t use in a sentence correctly.

lol ... it fits. get over it.

Must be a day of the week ending in y.

And yet here you are, pro-abort.

you remind me of donny - believes his own bullshit, cause he said so.

lol ....