Anti-abortion politicians deserve to be asked if they've helped a woman get one

Anti-abortion politicians deserve to be asked if they've helped a woman get one


Those who judge women’s private decisions should face personal scrutiny – but preserving the privacy of their female partners must come first.


Why isn’t it considered reasonable to ask male politicians that seek to curb reproductive rights if they’ve helped a woman procure an abortion?


Of the many outrageous things presidential hopeful Donald Trump has said to the media, there’s one line in particular that I just can’t get out of my head. When New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd asked Trump if he had ever been involved with a woman who had an abortion, the Republican frontrunner offered a telling refusal: “Such an interesting question … So what’s your next question?”

It’s not hard to imagine why Trump – who has left voicemails about “getting more pussy” than Tucker Carlson and defended the size of his penis in a presidential debate – would shy away from the question. It may be the same reason that he told MSNBC host Chris Matthews that women should be “punished” for procuring illegal abortions but the men who impregnated them should not.

But why hasn’t he been pressed to answer? More importantly: why isn’t this considered a reasonable question to ask male politicians that seek to curb reproductive rights? If anti-abortion men are comfortable pushing policy that strictly dictates women’s private medical decisions, they should be prepared to defend their own.

If Trump thinks abortion should be illegal and that people – be it the doctors who perform the procedure or the women who get them – should go to jail, surely he should feel comfortable saying whether or not he’s helped a woman end her pregnancy. Those who want to insert themselves into women’s decisions about contraception should face the scrutiny, as well.

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http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/apr/08/anti-abortion-politicians-past-relationships-question