The protestations were loud, angry, and widespread. When Florida Governor Ron DeSantis excoriated Democrats for their bizarre and macabre obsession with expanding the right to kill a living human up until the moment of birth, progressive ministers, progressive pols, and progressive trolls alike came up for air.
You'll excuse the Right for being a bit taken aback by the outrage. After all, we've just come off two years of bitter protest surrounding the overturning of Roe v. Wade, the Left's version of Jesus's Greatest Commandment. If the last half century proved anything, it's that Roe permitted the atrocity of killing children right up to, and even after the moment of birth. Remember the furor over Barack Obama's opposition to the Born Alive Infant Protection Act? That wasn't just about whether it was okay to kill a human baby at birth, it was about whether it was okay to deny a human baby that survived an abortion attempt lifesaving treatment after birth.
Not to mention it seems more than a bit perplexing that anyone affiliated with or supportive of the modern Democrat Party would object to DeSantis's characterization of their views given that:
- Democrats passed a measure last Congress that allowed for legal abortion up to the moment of birth.
- Democrats proposed a Virginia bill in 2019 that would have permitted a doctor to dismember a living baby even if the mother was dilating.
- Democrats have continued their vocal support of the misnamed "Women's Health Protection Act" - Jen Psaki even pushed for it from the president's podium herself:
- Seven states, all under Democrat Party control, currently have no limit on when abortion can be committed, including at the moment of birth.
- The Democrat Party platform explicitly states the party's support for a universal right to abortion at any stage, without limit.
So again, pardon those of us on the side of human rights for living children, born or preborn, for being surprised that the Left has suddenly become so publicly incensed after being called out for the very things they have promoted for decades.
But should they really mean it, should this not be a form of toxic gaslighting on the issue of human rights, should it be true that "no one" supports abortion up until birth, is it fair to ask a few questions? Including this extremely clarifying one:
"So, at what point do you stop supporting it?"
I agree with my friend Joel Berry of The Babylon Bee that it would be instructive to know why the Left would suddenly object to abortion at the point of birth.
But beyond that, I'd be truly appreciative of hearing someone, anyone, in a position of leadership on the Left - leadership from the pulpit, platform, or politics - articulate what moment abortion should become illegal. After all, this has been the biggest hang-up to any form of cultural reconciliation on the issue. The Left consistently refuses to define any limits on the practice that they find acceptable, and more importantly, explain why they find any abortion beyond that limit unacceptable.
Granted, I know why they don't. Because the moment you arbitrarily draw a line in the sand, you expose yourself to embarrassing follow-ups. For instance, imagine they proclaimed:
"Anything after the second trimester should be illegal because the fetus has too much resemblance to a baby."
Without knowing the precise moment of conception, when can we possibly know the magical moment when the third trimester begins? And even if we knew that precise moment, what makes the baby one second before your line any different than the same baby one second after your line in terms of her rights?
For those of us on the Right it's fairly easy to be consistent - even though it isn't practiced consistently. Conception is the only rational time to mark a fundamental difference between what exists before and after it. Before conception you do not have a living human. After conception, you do. Life processes begin at the moment of conception, so that's where we can know life begins.
If the Left has a better, more rational, more reasonable, more moral answer than that, now would certainly be the time to share, explain, and defend it.
