The Republican fight against women’s reproductive rights continues as new Ohio restrictions on abortions take effect this month. These new restrictions come too close to crossing the line of constitutionality and must be overturned.

According to a New York Times piece published last Wednesday, the Ohio law requires clinics to offer women a chance to see an ultrasound of the fetus and to see its beating heart before performing an abortion.

While proponents of the law will argue that such limitations don’t prohibit abortions outright, it’s an obvious attempt to change the minds of women who have already struggled with the decision.

It’s a cruel mind game designed to incite feelings of guilt and shame.

And abortion should be a non-issue — its constitutionality was settled with the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade.

Social conservatives argue that the unborn have the right to life, but when it comes to truly caring for young Americans, their track record paints an entirely different picture.

The right wing sure seems to care about ensuring that unborn children come into the world, but it stops there.

Why else would Republicans time and time again attempt to cut funding for social programs that benefit children, such as Head Start and food stamps?

What’s even more troubling is that Republicans have recently sought to defund Planned Parenthood — which offers low-cost birth control — in addition to fighting against the Obamacare mandate that requires employers to offer insurance covering birth control.

So in the ideal world for social conservatives, women cannot choose to terminate their pregnancy, but they also can’t have increased access to birth control methods that would reduce the need for abortions in the first place.

It’s a troubling anti-woman agenda that has only grown worse in recent years.

And Republicans sit and wonder why they continue to have trouble winning elections. With a social agenda that alienates half the population, it’s not a difficult question to answer.

What contemporary Republicans really want to do is what comedian Bill Maher appropriately described as “legislating taste.”

The evangelical right that has come to dominate today’s Republican Party seeks to impose their morality on the population at large by enacting laws based on biblical principles.

Nearly every major social issue has been affected by this push, from gay rights to women’s reproductive rights. In these cases, conservatives have sought to limit rights, if not eliminate them altogether.

Eating pork goes against Jewish dietary laws, yet there’s no major lobby to have pork outlawed in the United States. Evangelical conservatives would be wise to take note of this.

Fortunately for Ohioans, the current restrictions aren’t as bad as they could have been. According to The New York Times, Ohio Right to Life — a pro-life interest group — fought the enactment of more sweeping abortion restrictions in that state.

It’s a good sign for the pro-choice movement, but there’s still a lot of work to be done.

Naturally, abortion is a delicate issue and an ultimately personal choice. That’s why the Supreme Court decided to effectively legalize it with the Roe decision in 1973.

And that’s precisely how opponents to abortion need to treat the subject — as a personal decision.

Thinking abortion is impermissible is a perfectly acceptable viewpoint.

But just because one segment of the population thinks it’s wrong doesn’t mean that it must be outlawed for the whole of society. Opposition can be adequately expressed through the conscious choice to not have one, rather than trying to legislate taste for everyone.

It’s time to live and let live and end the fight against a woman’s right to choose.

David Swenton is a senior political science and writing and rhetoric major. His column appears weekly. He can be reached at daswento@syr.edu or followed on Twitter at @DavidSwenton.

Published on October 16, 2013 at 2:21 am