I know exactly where I stand on the issue of abortion.
My faith and my own life experiences have led me there.
I have been pregnant four times – not all of them planned.
I have been a foster mother to a four-pound baby whose teen-aged mother did not know she was pregnant until the day she gave birth.
One of our godchildren is a young woman who was born three months prematurely weighing just over two pounds.
I can’t imagine a world without my children and, now, theirs. The baby we fostered is now married and the mother of her own children. The goddaughter has grown into a strong, barrier-busting young woman.
You will never convince me that a viable fetus is not a human being.
But I also believe in dignity and human decency. When I vote my conscience, I can’t choose candidates based on a single issue.
Abortion itself is far more nuanced than some candidates would have you believe, and its current broad definition has put women’s health and lives at risk.
Political litmus tests like abortion have led to troubling candidates who pander to their party and encourage a heart-breaking and paralyzing divisiveness that gets them elected at the expense of the electorate they represent.
I voted early this year because I am traveling on election day and I wanted to make sure I was able to cast my ballot.
I understood the assignment, and I completed it.
I voted for Kamala Harris because I believe in the U.S. electoral process, in human dignity, in the U.S. Constitution and in a fair and balanced government that is of the people and not the person.
I wouldn’t presume to tell you what candidate should get your vote.
I’m just asking you to look beyond one, single issue to choose a candidate whose ethics you genuinely support.
