Tom Paine 1949
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- Mar 15, 2020
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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.
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.
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