COMMENTARY | As far back as 2006, the Washington Post reported on moderate Republicans forced to distance themselves from their party, some jumping ship and running on a Democratic ticket. As the current election cycle moved into full swing, the American Prospect noted moderate restraints on the Republican Party had met their demise.
Pandering to the far right has caused the party to lose credibility not only among Republican moderates but among potential crossover voters who would support a mainstream Republican candidate a few years back but not today's extremist Republican candidate.
The pernicious influence of religious extremists is most noticeable in the proliferation of pledges Republicans are signing to gain their support. The most detrimental among these pledges is the promise to champion so-called personhood amendments.
Personhood amendments are the latest innovation of abortion opponents. They declare human zygotes to be on equal footing with human beings from the moment of conception, entitled to full constitutional protections. Far from being pro-life in effect, these proposed laws ignore biological realities and disrespect women's right to life.
Despite far right religious zealots' wishful thinking, a zygote is not a human being and that's a biological fact. Some 30 percent to 50 percent of zygotes are chromosomally defective to the extent they are incapable of becoming human life and fail to implant. Under personhood amendments, these nonviable tissues are given the legal status of human beings, independent of the interests of the women in whose bodies they exist.
Some implanted zygotes also will never produce a living person. One example is the partial molar pregnancy in which the sperm and egg combine to create a tumorous growth that in virtually all cases is incapable of life.
Failure to remove this tissue when it does not spontaneously abort will cause a woman to bleed to death. Republican candidates supporting the personhood amendment would impose death on these women for political gain. And in a most frightening development for citizens who function according to reason and live according to law, candidates like Rick Perry promise to defy Supreme Court rulings overturning personhood amendments, according to Mother Jones, undermining the constitutional balance of powers.
Choosing ignorance over fact to pander to an extremist minority has damaged the Republican Party. The damage will continue until the moderates have the courage to risk rejection of extremist voters whose support is conditioned on commitment to ignorance.
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