How far the Democrats have fallen.
How far the Democrats have fallen.
‘W e care about young women. We care about young children. And we want to make it possible to choose life.” Perhaps the mere fact that then-United States senator from Ohio JD Vance felt the need to say that was an indication that pro-life efforts to hold back the hand of the abortion industry in the Buckeye State would fail come Election Day 2023.
In that same interview with the Catholic cable channel EWTN, Vance also explained the financial and social pressures that single mothers especially feel when faced with unplanned pregnancies, believing “they don’t have any other options.” He was arguing for the freedom for women — and girls — to choose life. Housing shouldn’t be the pressure that leads a woman to choose abortion. Money or career should not be what drives a woman to the most intimate violence our culture tries to mainstream with euphemisms so the bloody truth of abortion is buried deep in the pain women suffer. Women see the death of their children as an expectation in all too many circumstances. Women are then meant to feel there is something wrong with them for their sorrow.
Vance’s demeanor in the fall of 2023 was inviting to anyone looking for a way out of our immiserating culture of death. At the Ohio March for Life that October, you could have passed by the statehouse in Columbus and given the pro-life position a second look. Vance spoke as a parent who wants his children to know that they are a family of mercy. He spoke with compassion, largely free of talking points, instead revealing a heart for a culture of radical hospitality.
That’s a far cry from the current vice president. On the fifth day of Christmas, Kamala Harris reminded social-media followers that she was the first person to hold what will be Vance’s new job later this month to visit an abortion clinic. For Harris and the Democratic Party, obeying Planned Parenthood is all but mandatory.
They call it a “fight for reproductive freedom,” but it was politically wise for presidents and vice presidents to have avoided Planned Parenthoods. People don’t want to think about or focus on abortion. They don’t like it. That’s why Bill Clinton’s “safe, legal, and rare” worked. And yet now it seems like a relic for the Smithsonian. Democrats weren’t always the absolutists on abortion that they are now. Even Joe Biden himself wasn’t always.
The death of former president Jimmy Carter ought to be a reflective moment for Americans who find themselves frustrated with abortion politics today. “There is a consensus within our Christian churches, liberal and conservative, that a developing fetus should be protected whenever possible,” Carter wrote in his 2014 book A Call to Action: Women, Religion, Violence, and Power. About abortion, he said: “This is a difficult issue for me. In many ways, every abortion is an unplanned tragedy, brought about by a combination of human errors, and my Christian faith convinces me that a prospective parent should not make this decision unless the life of the mother is threatened or the pregnancy is caused by rape or incest. I accepted my obligation as president to enforce the Supreme Court ruling in Roe v. Wade that authorized some abortions.” He went on to chide Catholic bishops and pro-lifers for insisting that aid to the suffering abroad not include all the abortion industry’s demands.
Still, “Carter was a Democrat and pro-life,” former Democratic congressman Dan Lipinski wrote for First Things. He never ceased to be either, even as radical pro-choice — arguably pro-abortion — activists took over the Democratic Party in the 44 years after the peanut farmer from Georgia left the White House,” Lipinski continued.
Lipinski, who was primaried out of Congress by his own political party for being pro-life, pointed to a 2018 commencement address Carter delivered at Liberty University. For a Democrat to actually use the a-word is anathema to the party’s rhetorical songbook. And yet Carter did. He, of course, had the freedom that comes with not ever having to run for office again. Unfortunately, he didn’t run with that more to directly challenge his party’s abandonment of conscience — having one, struggling because of it, and respecting the conscience rights of others who not only believe abortion is evil, but also find ourselves following the science and seeing that abortion involves two patients — and one dies in the process.
Still, in a 2015 interview in the New York Times, Carter emphasized a crucial challenge for Christians who support abortion policies: “I have never believed that Jesus would be in favor of abortion, unless it was the result of rape or incest, or the mother’s life was in danger. That’s been the only conflict I’ve had in my career between political duties and Christian faith.”
Kamala Harris’s X post was the same day that President Carter died. Vance made some misfires on abortion on the road to his post-Senate life. He said on a Sunday show, for instance, that he would support abortion-pill access, which was both an unconscionable position for a pro-life Catholic convert and a misinterpretation of a 2024 Supreme Court ruling on the standing of a case rather than any specifics of the way abortion pills became available to women. It would be absurd right now to assume that the Democratic Party would heed Carter’s cautions on abortion. Vance, on the other hand, could let the country in on what is often little-known about our 39th president.
Mary Margaret Olohan of the Daily Wire had a good idea in response to Harris: “Would be awesome for JD Vance to visit a pregnancy center and candidly expose the lies that Harris and activists have spread about pro-lifers.” The incoming vice president has the social capital to use his office to help women and men and our culture toward more humane approaches to unplanned pregnancies.
There are options other than abortion. And, yes, turning to Jesus would not hurt. The Jesus option would also make many of us more credible witness to the love and hope believers are called to be witnesses of. Carter knew that. We are all imperfect and he didn’t go as far as some of us longed for, but he had the right idea. Work together for life. And is there any doubt he would want us all to help mothers and children and families flourish? Remind your local Democrats what Carter said about abortion.
And it’s not too crazy; consider making a home for a mother and child. Housing is hard. Maternity homes can be grassroots efforts, responses to close-to-home needs. Jesus and Jimmy Carter just both might approve.
This column is based on one available through Andrews McMeel Universal’s Newspaper Enterprise Association.