The U.S. is reeling from the COVID-19 pandemic. To deal with the health emergency for the first several months, Virginia banned all non-essential health care services in order to husband critical medical resources. Yet, almost all Democrat Governors – ours included – insisted that abortions be allowed to continue. So, at the height of the pandemic pushing the U.S. medical system to the brink of collapse, Democrat leaders asserted that snuffing out the lives of the unborn had equal priority to saving COVID-19 victims.
Gov. Northam’s actions underscore how the Democratic Party has become the Abortion Party. In January 2019, Gov. Cuomo lit One World Trade Center in pink to celebrate legalization of late-term abortions. In the same month, Northam endorsed outright infanticide, suggesting that a baby born during a botched abortion ought to be “made comfortable,” but then possibly left to die on the table. In 2019, 44 Democratic senators voted to reject the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act. In February 2020, 41 Democratic Senators, including Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, successfully filibustered the bill’s re-introduction.
A driving force behind the Democrat Party’s canoodling with the abortion industry seems to be money. Groups who endorse abortion on demand, such as NARAL, Emily’s List, Progressive Action PAC, and the National Organization for Women have contributed millions of dollars to Democrats. Planned Parenthood alone announced in October 2019 that they will spend $45 million for Democratic candidates in the 2020 election. So, it was almost mandatory that, in this crisis, our Governor had to construct a twisted logic that equates the killing of unborn children with saving the lives of pandemic victims.
This is not the first time that the Democratic Party has been taken over by a single, abhorrent issue. In fact, the Democratic Party became the Party of Slavery in the 1850’s. The giants of the Party at that time, John Calhoun, John Breckenridge, Steven Douglas, sought to preserve and expand slavery across the entire U.S. It was almost their sole issue.
Today, defenders of abortion in Richmond cite a myriad of reasons for the practice. Ironically, parallel arguments justifying slavery were made in the very same capitol building in Richmond, 150 years ago.
- Slave owners insisted that only they had a voice on the issue of slavery; abolitionists did not own slaves, ergo couldn’t dictate on slavery. Today, abortion supporters claim that abortion is an issue only for the women; men have no voice in their private decisions; that abortion is a gender, not a human rights issue.
- Slaves existed for solely the benefit of their master; a slave’s right to life was completely in hands of their owners. Today, abortion supporters claim that a woman’s right to control her own body supersedes the unborn child’s right to life.
- Slave owners insisted that negroes were property, ergo had no human rights. Today, abortion supporters claim that an unborn child is not human, ergo has no inherent right to life.
- A slave-owning white person had the unquestioned right to defend themself against assault, but slaves who fought their masters were executed. Today, women can choose an abortion, but the unborn have no right to protect themselves from the abortionist’s scalpel and needle.
- If a slave owner fathered a child with a slave, custom demanded that he separate the infant from its mother at birth and sold his own offspring into slavery. Now, we have a state-sponsored social structure that tells mothers it is acceptable to kill their children.
- In 1860, a white person’s word was immediately accepted in court, while no black man was allowed to even give testimony. Today, abortion supporters argue their case in court, but who speaks for the unborn in a Democrat administration?
Like slave owners 150 years ago, Democrats today want to use the law as their bulwark against human instinct. In the 1850’s, pro-slavery congressmen refused to let Congress hear anti-slavery petitions for years until finally beaten back by John Quincy Adams. Today, Supreme Court nominees who might oppose abortion are savaged by abortion defenders and Democrats during confirmation hearings. Then, they passed the Fugitive Slave Act and triumphed in the Supreme Court with the Dred Scott decision. Today, they have Roe vs. Wade, which decreed that a fetus was not yet a person, and Doe vs. Bolton.
Frederick Douglas said that the slave owner was just as much of a victim of the slave trade as the slave. The slave was victimized by bondage, but the slave owner was dehumanized by his role in it. In the same way, abortion kills unborn infants, but dehumanizes the women who undergo it and those who practice it by forcing them to deny the basic instincts of humanity. What sort of social system forced a parent to sell their offspring into slavery? And, today, what could be more contrary to human instincts than to kill one’s own off-spring? What sane person snuffs out an innocent, defenseless human life? And, what is the impact on the souls of those who participate?
Slavery tainted the U.S. until it was abolished. Abortion taints us today. Douglas described the choice in 1861 as, “The emancipator vs the enslaver”. Today, it is the defender of life vs. the abortionist.
Ironically, the words of President Lincoln in 1864 still frame the way forward for this issue, too. In his second inaugural address, Lincoln said, “With malice towards none, with charity for all, … Let us seek a solution that binds the nation’s wounds.” The same charge still applies today. We need to find solutions to the abortion crisis, but they need to be compassionate toward both the unborn, as well as to those not yet ready or able to be parents. The challenge for us to find those policies and actions that will do both.
But, the first question is whether we will we rise to defend the hallowed principle of the sanctity of life or sink to the obscurity of indifference to it? I know which side I chose and why I must fight our Governor and his use of the law to snuff out the most innocent of lives.
