Dehumanizing unborn children in the womb is an act of violence that leads only to more violence.
Global realities set in.
S enate Democrats ended February by insisting on a procedural fight over the Women’s Health Protection Act. They aimed to get Republicans on record during an election year. But if Americans realize just what the Women’s Health Protection Act is about, it should not only backfire as a Democratic strategy but prompt an awakening about how radical a country we’ve become when it comes to abortion. The Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision put us in league with the abortion laws of North Korea and China. If Roe is overturned in June, Democrats plan to legislate pro-abortion policy — and then some.
It was striking to hear Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer be open about what the euphemistically and manipulatively named legislation is about: abortion. Most Democrats in the Senate voted for the bill to come to the floor. The one exception was West Virginia’s Joe Manchin, who more and more often is finding himself to be an exception, much like former Democratic congressman Dan Lipinski, who fought to make abortion opponents welcome in his party. Lipsinki is no longer in Congress because the powers that be in his party — who need the support of the abortion industry — primaried him.
One of the senators who went on record in a clarifying way was Bob Casey Jr. of Pennsylvania. He describes himself as pro-life, even though he gets decent ratings from Planned Parenthood for his voting record. He’s a far cry from his courageous father, Bob Casey Sr., who was banned from speaking at the 1992 Democratic convention for fear that he would challenge his party on abortion. While Bill Clinton was fully committed to abortion, he was politically smart about it. He knew that most Americans were not motivated by legal abortion but that many who consider themselves pro-choice don’t think about it that often and just consider abortion a necessary evil. So, while not letting Casey speak, Clinton said he wanted abortion to be “safe, legal, and rare.”
Casey Jr., by contrast, just voted to bring to the Senate floor the most radical pro-abortion bill that Congress has ever seen. It’s legislation that insists that the states don’t have the right to govern themselves when it comes to abortion. And Democrats are supporting this when, in some states, a clear majority of voters have chosen to set limits on abortion. Even Casey’s home state has a ban on abortions after the 24th week of pregnancy. That’s not overly restrictive, that’s reasonable.
The New York Times, in covering the Senate vote, described some of the state laws — in Mississippi and Texas, most notably — as inflicting “not medically necessary” restrictions on abortion. That ignores the fact that abortion isn’t medically necessary. A D&C that saves the life of the mother isn’t aimed at killing the baby, although it will. That’s not what we’re arguing about when it comes to abortion, but it is convenient for abortion ideologues to keep us there, disingenuously, in impossible rhetorical territory.
It is especially because the Republican Party is a mess right now that it is such a grave scandal that the Democratic Party won’t give voice to the completely vulnerable unborn. The White House issued a statement insisting that “restrictions are particularly devastating for communities of color.” In fact, these are the women and girls who, so often, are the most pressured into abortion as their only choice.
There’s a practical new book, Speaking for the Unborn: 30-Second Pro-Life Rebuttals to Pro-Choice Arguments, written by Steven A. Christie, a medical doctor in Miami. He didn’t have to write the book, but he knows that abortion isn’t merely a political issue but a basic human-rights issue, because he follows the science. Toward the beginning of the book, he points out that there have been over 62 million abortions since Roe in 1973. When asked why one would bother speaking for the unborn, he writes: “If the unborn are not alive or not human, then it really doesn’t matter, and we needn’t bother about this.” He continues, “If, however, the unborn are alive and are human, then we have killed more than sixty-two million children.” It’s for children that we bother, he concludes. The book goes on to make nonreligious arguments against abortion. It’s only in choosing to look away from basic facts — and he lays them out — that abortion continues in America.
Dr. Christie is also clear that compassion for women needs to be foremost in our minds as we urge the protection of the unborn, particularly knowing that 62 million abortions mean that millions of women, too, have suffered. Any loss causes suffering, so even those who shout their abortions to protest restrictions must have deep, raw wounds that politics no doubt pours salt on.
At a time when Russia is giving the world flashbacks to the Soviet menace, and as we hear widespread calls for peace — including from the head of the Democratic Party, President Biden — Democrats made their priority an election-minded vote on expanding abortion in America, seeking to ride roughshod over states that are better than that.
Don’t expect peace in the world until we do better than abortion. Forgive me for borrowing that from Mother Teresa, speaking in front of President Clinton at the time. Until we stop dehumanizing the unborn child in the womb, expect more, not less violence in homes, in our country, and throughout the world.
This column is based on one available through Andrews McMeel Universal’s Newspaper Enterprise Association.