Birds on the Brain

Paul Ryan’s libertarian economic agenda certainly doesn’t extend to cultural issues, where Ryan wants activist state and federal governments to enforce traditional gender hierarchies. As Michelle Goldberg of the Daily Beast demonstrates, Ryan has compiled a remarkably radical anti-choice record. He has not only supported federal legislation declaring that life begins at conception, but also supported the idea that the 14th Amendment gives equal protection rights to “the unborn,” which would make abortion first-degree murder in all 50 states. The selection of Ryan should make clear that Republicans don’t merely want to “return abortion to the states.” And Ryan’s justifications for his extreme anti-abortion views illustrate a chilling indifference towards women’s rights that echoes his indifference to the poor.

As Goldberg argues, to Ryan “a woman’s claim to bodily autonomy or self-determination doesn’t merit even cursory consideration.” Ryan’s extremist hostility to women’s rights extends to gays and lesbians as well. Ryan supported a constitutional amendment that would permanently ban same-sex marriage in every state in the union, and also voted to ban adoptions by same-sex couples in the District of Columbia and against the repeal of the unpopular and unjust ban on gays and lesbians in the military. As this record indicates, Ryan cannot even pretend that this opposition to gay and lesbian rights has anything to do with federalism. He just believes that gays and lesbians do not deserve equal treatment under the law, and supports enshrining this bigotry both in federal statutes and the United States Constitution.