Anti-Choice All the Way

[Trigger warning for discussion of right-to-die law for terminally ill people.]

Below is video of the exchange that Misty mentions in her letter, of which the quote she highlights is the most egregious part. But also note his reference to "dignity of people at the end of life."

CNN Moderator John King: Let's go back down to the floor here. Jennifer Vaughn has a question.

Jennifer Vaughn, WMUR Anchor: Thanks, John. Senator Santorum, staying with you for a moment, if I may, you are staunchly pro-life. Governor Romney used to support abortion rights until he changed his position on this a few years ago. This has been thoroughly discussed. But do you believe he genuinely changed his mind, or was that a political calculation? Should this be an issue in this primary campaign?

SANTORUM: I think, I think an issue should be, in looking at any candidate, is looking at the authenticity of that candidate and looking at their, at their record over time and what they fought for. And I think that's, that's a factor that, that should be determined.

You can look at my record. Not only have I been consistently pro-life, but I've taken the, you know, I've not just taken the pledge; I've taken the bullets to go out there and fight for this and lead on those issues. And I think that's a factor that people should consider when you, when you look—well, what is this president going to do when he comes to office?

A lot of folks run for president as pro-life and then that issue gets shoved to the back burner. I will tell you that the issue of pro-life, the sanctity and dignity of every human life, not just at birth, not just on the issue of abortion, but with respect to the entire life, which I mentioned welfare reform and, and the dignity of people at the end of life, those issues will be top priority issues for me to make sure that all life is respected and held with dignity.

Santorum was not, as I'm sure you've guessed, signaling his support for giving people end-of-life choices, but, in fact, restricting those choices. Michele Bachmann also weighed in her support of "the dignity of life from conception until natural death. … I stand for life from conception until natural death."

As the right-to-die movement gains momentum in the US, social conservatives are staking out their position in opposition to giving terminally ill people the choice on their own terms. (Note: For a fair and exceptionally moving treatment of Oregon's trailblazing right-to-die law, I highly recommend How to Die in Oregon.) The forced birthers are, unsurprisingly, forced drawn-out-deathers, too.

Anti-choice all the way.

"Pro-life" is, by any reasonable reckoning, a meaningless term when it does not concern itself in even the most cursory way with quality of life. They believe in the sanctity of life, they assured us at last night's debate, as they rotely intoned their alleged respect for the dignity of life—but what is sacred about an ebbing life that even the person living it no longer wants?

And what could be more private, more personal, more individual by definition than control over one's own body and life? Conservatives love to talk about giving people control over their money and their healthcare and whatthefuckever in support of fiscal policies that benefit corporations, but never is their mendacious lipservice to individual liberty more obvious as the manifest horseshit that it is than when they stand on a stage and speak their support of laws dictating what people can and cannot do with their own bodies and lives.

[Commenting Guidelines: Although discussions of right-to-die laws routinely refer to patients' death as "physician assisted suicide," right-to-die laws are really not about suicide, which is the intentional taking of one's own life. Terminally ill people's lives are already being taken by disease; they are just being given control of the "when" of their deaths. Please bear that distinction in mind in this thread and be careful not to conflate "suicide" with physician assisted choice to die—which really shouldn't be at issue, anyway, because the topic is not "debate right-to-die laws," but "discuss the GOP's garbage ideology."]