As I await the Republican presidential debate in New Hampshire June 5, I can't help but think that maybe the big hoo-haw over donations to Planned Parenthood by some of the candidates or their wives, or parsing the positions of the various candidates on what a woman can or can't do with her own body, is over! But I doubt it.

For too long, the debate over "who decides" when, where, and with whom Americans can have sex has rattled around the political arena, energizing or alienating the so-called "base" of the major political parties. What happened to the concept of privacy? Aren't decisions about procreation family decisions? Since when are these decisions any business of a political party or a government?

The late Barry Goldwater, revered by conservatives, and the Republican Party's presidential nominee in 1964, once said, "I'm not for abortion, but it's something that's up to the individual, not the government…." Barry's wife Peggy was one of the founders of a Planned Parenthood affiliate in Arizona. California Governor Ronald Reagan once signed into law one of the most non-restrictive abortion rights bills in the nation. President Richard Nixon signed into law a bill that for the first time created a federal program dedicated solely to funding family planning services, known as Title X.

What happened to my party?

Memories of Barry's candor quickly faded, and all of the Republican nominees for president since Reagan have played to the anti-abortion crowd. When the Moral Majority went out of business, Pat Robertson and the Christian Coalition got into the business of mixing religion and politics. The leadership of the Republican Party got suckered again. But the message of intolerance and exclusion finally seems to be falling on deaf ears: A pro-choice presidential candidate is now leading in most of the polls of Republican voters.

So it will be interesting to see if the questions and discussion at the Republican presidential debate on June 5 will focus on issues that a president and the government should be involved in—like national defense, terrorism, crime, poverty, hunger, and health care for women and families—or if they haven't gotten over the need to keep talking about how unusual it is to have a Republican candidate who believes that some personal decisions should just be left to the individual.