After attending various protests not only in Washington D.C. and Los Angeles but in the third-world cesspool of San Francisco and the marginally better downtown San Jose, I have, between calculated steps through an urban maze of heroin needles and human feces, witnessed a slew of horrors, each unique instance telling a story of moral rot and national decay. I’ve found there isn’t all that much within the realm of political demonstration that can take me off guard.
I’ve seen grown men flaunt their sexual interest in children, naked men hoist themselves upon stilts with young kids nearby, and brawls breaking out at the “Dyke March,” an event hosted in a park named after a Catholic Mission, the still-present steeple of which provides a painful contrast between what was and what is.
Megaphones have been blasted in my ear, I’ve ducked agitated protesters by slipping into alleyways, PA systems have been used to direct a mob’s shouts at me, and physical confrontations have been narrowly avoided. But this past weekend, a pro-abortion rally hosted by the Women’s March in Los Angeles reminded me that I haven’t seen it all.
The abortion disagreement is usually framed as follows: the right, believing that the fetus is a life, asserts that abortion is murder, while the left claims that the fetus is a “clump of cells,” or that it is otherwise not yet a living being and can therefore be disposed of at will.
As our video from the protest proves, however, this characterization is far too charitable. It doesn’t account for the people who simply do not care whether a fetus is a human life, and are willing to candidly admit it.
Consider the responses to the question, “If we could prove that a fetus was a life, would that change your perspective on abortion?”
Some of the responses I got were “f-ck them kids,” “absolutely not,” and just an indignant “no” that made the interviewee sound astonished that I’d even asked the question to begin with. One protester even told me that he was entirely unbothered by the fact that some unborn babies have struggled for their lives.
What was so appalling about these exchanges wasn’t just the answers, but the flippant attitude with which the entire topic was discussed. There seemed to be no internal moral struggle taking place.
This reality also exposes a fatal flaw with many conservatives on the issue of life. We often presume that if we can simply win the war of ideas and prove that the unborn child is a living being, then the other side will naturally accept that we must protect them.
Unfortunately, this assumption that everyone values human life isn’t always true. It’s an irreconcilable difference that transcends political ideology: Some people value life, and others do not. When debating those who have a complete disregard for human life, your arguments don’t matter.
Instead of a fight to win in the market of ideas, we must recognize this as what it is: a zero-sum game between people who want to defend life and those who are quite open about their willingness to dismember a baby with forceps and vacuum it out of its mother’s womb the moment it becomes any kind of obstacle.
In case the evil that pervaded this event wasn’t already evident enough, take note of the Satanic and demonic influences that were present. One protester showed me her membership card to the Satanic Temple and, despite claiming that members of the Temple didn’t believe in supernatural forces, cited Satan as a valuable symbolic figure.
Perhaps even worse was my conversation with a woman who told me she donates to the Lilith Fund, an organization she seemed completely unaware is named after a literal demon who specifically posed a threat to women bearing children.
Their website even claims that “Abortion is a blessing.” No, not something that should just be “safe, legal, and rare,” but a positive good for society. These downright Satanic influences should come as no surprise. The Satanic Church was one of the last lines of defense for those on the side of abortion in Texas, arguing that abortion is a practice with religious significance.
Those who are pro-abortion because of a belief that a fetus is not a life but just a clump of cells should not only study fetal development but also pause and consider the ramifications of allying with such boldfaced evil.
Meanwhile, those on the right will have to realize that this fight cannot be won simply in the marketplace of ideas. It isn’t just a misunderstanding, but a struggle for life against those who call its destruction a “blessing.”
