The last two weeks have included extraordinarily disturbing news about abortion in America. They have also been incredibly instructive.
Let’s recap the timeline. First, New York passes the much discussed Reproductive Health Act. Along with this new legislation, Gov. Andrew Cuomo ordered the spire of the One World Trade Center lit up pink, in an attempt to celebrate its passage. What is apparently worthy of celebration is allowing abortion at any point in pregnancy, including through the third trimester; allowing non-doctors to perform abortions; and removing abortion entirely from the criminal code, which means that unborn babies murdered by, for example, domestic violence will not be prosecuted as a killing.
Second, in Virginia, my beloved home, Democratic lawmakers put forth an abortion expansion bill that the chief patron admitted would allow for abortions literally up until the moment of birth, if a doctor certified that having the child could affect the mental health of the mother.
Third, following this tortured admission, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam defended the bill, and essentially defended infanticide, or at the very least defended the abandonment of newborn infants. Amazingly, this is not his biggest problem right now.
Fourth, Senate Democrats blocked a bill championed by Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse that would prohibit infanticide by protecting children born alive after botched abortions.
This sequence of events is absolutely astonishing. Despite being incredibly disturbing, it is also incredibly revealing. These events have blown the lid off the idea that the left has any intentions whatsoever to be even halfway moderate on abortion. More importantly, it teaches us about the left’s commitments and confusions.
First, the Left’s quest for absolute equality ironically results in a massively unequal society. The left is deeply committed to a dogma that, for an equal society to exist, women must have unfettered access to abortion, because it is the only mechanism that can effectively place men and women on an equal playing field.
This is an entirely uncreative and lazy idea, that to seek equality, we must destroy. The result of this dogma is that inequality soars. It draws a bright (but false) line between humans pre-birth and post-birth, exacerbating inequality beyond imagination. In the blind search for equality by abortion, inequality triumphs.
Second, despite the left’s constant overtures to the defense of the vulnerable, they somehow miss the absolute most vulnerable among us: children in the womb and even newborns. The call to recognize and respect the “least of these” is one of the left’s traditional virtues, but it has sadly become a hollow cry as they completely ignore the category of people that have the least voice, the least ability, and the least legal protection.
Their blindness is willful, and it shows that while some of their call to protect the vulnerable may be genuine, it is not their overriding commitment. No, their ultimate loyalty lies elsewhere.
Third, the left’s ultimate loyalty lies in the idea that every person must be completely autonomous, no matter the cost. Their conception of individualism and autonomy is shallow and unexamined. On no other issue than abortion do we declare that autonomy entails the ability to end the life of another innocent person.
The worship of ultimate autonomy puts all of the burden on women then dares to call it their greatest freedom. When you have a god, anything is on the table for sacrifice. Sadly, the left’s god is a shallow but extreme form of autonomy, and children are the sacrifice on the table.
Fourth, in the left’s never-ending condemnation of others as science-deniers, their faith in the god of autonomy has required them to deny what is obvious — that children in the womb are children indeed. The disgraceful advocacy of the last two weeks has insisted that children aren’t really children if they’re in the womb, even moments before birth, and perhaps even after they’re born.
The left is willing to discard scientific evidence when it serves their higher god. This shows us that many are guided much more by a rage against nature, a rage against the biological differences of men and women, and a rage against the created order, far more than they are by a dedication to the scientific method.
The left’s blind commitments and rage are what causes them to defend the indefensible. In doing so, they have done us all a great service. They have swung wide the doors of their temple, revealing what they truly worship.
