I&#x27;ve never understood why so many people allow abortion to so heavily influence their choice of party&#x2F;political candidate. So few people will ever have abortions in their lives and yet everyone will pay taxes, receive health care and most of us will know someone in military service. These issues affect our lives in ways that are so much more profound than abortion does and yet we continually allow the two parties to distract us from these issues with the issue of abortion.<p>Note: I say this as the grandchild of someone who attempted to abort my mother after being raped by my grandfather. My grandmother&#x27;s life was basically ruined when she was forced to marry her rapist after the then-illegal abortion failed. My mother, and transitively, me, would not exist had safe, legal abortions been available in 1940. Even with this intensely personal connection to the abortion issue, the issue has zero influence on how I vote. It boggles my mind that those with almost no personal connection to it let it influence their votes to the degree that they do.