Don’t Believe the Dems’ Dark Abortion Hysterics

E lectric. Such was the atmosphere for a gubernatorial bill-signing in Montclair, N.J., one otherwise gloomy August Thursday. Governor Mikie Sherrill wore a bright orange blouse that seemed to reflect the celebratory mood. “We won’t be intimidated,” she said. “We won’t back down. And we will get it done.” Sherrill said they were gathered to address a “national emergency.”

The backdrop for the merriment was a Planned Parenthood clinic. Sherrill recalled being at the same clinic the day Donald Trump’s “handpicked Supreme Court overturned Roe and turned back the clock on our rights.” She returned to sign the “Reproductive Health and Gender-Affirming Care Protections Act,” aimed at securing the Garden State as a powerhouse for abortion for women in the state and in other states, where there are actual protections for the unborn and women when it comes to abortion.

Now, if you read about what Sherrill and the gals (such were the photo ops) in the local press, it all sounds reasonable enough: “The new law was celebrated Thursday by abortion-rights supporters, who said it would ensure better protections for patients and providers. It has been criticized by anti-abortion advocates, who said it could interfere with their right to protest.”

The legislation is instructive in making clear something anyone who has spent time around Planned Parenthoods in the past few years is well aware of: They are not just about ending parenthood — I myself have seen plenty of men walk in without women, presumably for gender-transition help.

But, about the “protest”: It’s the rare occasion when there is a physical confrontation outside, or inside, an abortion clinic. What makes headlines is when someone is arrested for walking into a clinic lobby and refusing to leave until the abortionist does. That’s trespassing. And the person doing so knows it is — it’s a participation in a noble tradition of civil disobedience in protecting human rights against unjust laws.

What doesn’t make headlines is most of the days in the life of a pro-life sidewalk counselor or “prayer warrior.” And while there are all types — some who holler Scripture, for sure — what you are more likely to see near a clinic is a woman — or a few of them, often — standing across the street praying. Her “weapon” is her rosary. (She inspired the pro-abortion slogan: “Keep your rosary off my ovaries.”) Another woman or two — sometimes with a man, their driver — might be there with an offer of accompaniment to an ultrasound. There may be a mobile unit down the block. Lives have been saved because of such a presence — often when women were otherwise being pressured to abort their unborn babies.

But, honestly, this sidewalk scene is increasingly a relic of another time. Abortion clinics are closing. Democrats like Sherrill want you to believe that that’s because of the cruelty of Trump and the Republican Party — she cited a one-year defunding of Planned Parenthood by Congress, which has since expired, as evidence:

We have seen attacks from the Trump Administration and other states on access to reproductive and gender affirming health care, and attempts to impose restrictions across state borders,” the governor said in her prepared remarks. “No one should fear intimidation or violence for seeking healthcare, and no healthcare professional should fear punishment from another state for providing care that is legal in New Jersey,” she added. “With this legislation, we are making clear that New Jersey will protect patients, providers, and the fundamental freedom to make personal health-care decisions.

At the Montclair rally, Sherrill sounded like she was workshopping a Democratic presidential-primary stump speech. She mentioned Republican Governors Greg Abbott and Ron DeSantis by name.

The language of intimidation and interference around the new law is a power play to satisfy longtime pro-choice activists in the state that the government Goliath is sticking it to Garden State stalwarts like Christopher Bell and his Good Counsel Homes. With limited resources, the people of Good Counsel save every life they can — women find themselves there asking for help. To whatever extent that keeping pro-lifers away from abortion clinics is a priority for New Jersey lawmakers, practically speaking, it’s merely a bullying tactic looking to shut down a lifeline to desperate mothers. Ditto efforts to curtail or outright shut down the work of pregnancy care centers. (First Choice and other pro-life centers in the state have already had to go to the Supreme Court for relief, securing a unanimous procedural ruling in their favor.)

And about the big, bad Trump administration. You may have heard that Planned Parenthood clinics have been closing around the country. There is no executive action that has caused abortion clinics to close. Clinics are closing because, as Chuck Donovan, founder of the Charlotte Lozier Institute and longtime pro-life activist, has been predicting for at least a decade: brick-and-mortar abortion clinics are becoming irrelevant. The majority of abortions are now chemical abortions. Women and girls take pills for which they might not have had so much as a telehealth appointment. Sometimes the dude in her life — current boyfriend, ex, abuser — got them himself.

That would have been a bit of a buzzkill at the signing party, because Sherrill’s money point was: “It’s easier to get an AR-15 in the United States than it is to get an abortion.”

If I weren’t so cheap (and if I didn’t mind doing business with these people), I would be writing this column with pills alongside my laptop. I came close to ordering abortion pills this week — just so I’d have firsthand evidence of how terrifyingly easy it is to get them. You go to a website. You check off what you want. You choose your shipping speed — overnight is an option. And then you are told: “Bonus: Get 10 Free Misoprostol Pills with every order.” I could have been buying shampoo off Amazon.

Planned Parenthood in some regions actively encourages women to have stashes of abortion pills on hand “just in case.” I don’t think anyone needed the prompting. Once pills are so easily available, they find their way into purses and medicine cabinets and wherever men who behave badly keep their poisons. It’s bad enough women have been convinced abortion pills on the ready are in their best interest, but feminists and many others — except the long-laboring Saint Josephs like Chris Bell — are all but turning a blind eye to the ease with which they can become tools for abusers.

Politicians like New Jersey’s governor are benefiting from confusion and ignorance. The abortion industry’s talking points are meant to alarm the nominally pro-choice American. By bolstering the work of the Good Counsels of the world, instead, we might get to a place where we are no longer subject to such miserable politics perverting supposed health care and women’s rights.

This column is based on one available through Andrews McMeel Universal’s Newspaper Enterprise Association.