Nearly two years after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, leftists are saying the quiet parts out loud about abortion. And believe it or not, the media are actually covering them saying so.
Two recent stories in Politico (of all places) have highlighted increasingly radical rhetoric, coupled with an unwillingness to tolerate dissent. While the left’s positions may make Joe Biden look moderate, they should make ordinary Americans feel morally and politically uncomfortable.
Abortion on Demand
The first story examined the State of the Union address to highlight Biden’s emphasis on “access” to abortion in circumstances such as medical emergencies. “That has left [progressive] activists and elected officials dismayed by what they see as a harmful divide between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ abortions that threatens to undermine a core tenet of the abortion-rights movement: that the decision to terminate a pregnancy should be between a patient and their doctor.”
The next paragraph quoted the CEO of Physicians for Reproductive Health: “The President is part and parcel of the culture of stigma and shame that surrounds abortion care. … Privileging certain stories allows us to ‘other’ people.” Politico also quoted another pro-abortion activist who co-leads the group Patient Forward: “We do not see this as a harmless approach because of all the ways it promotes stigma.”
In other words, to the left, any abortion is a “good” abortion.
Lest anyone consider conservatives inaccurate for pointing out that the left supports abortion on demand, Eloisa Lopez, the head of Pro-Choice Arizona, said the following:
A lot of people are disillusioned with the two-party system in general and Biden in particular. … What we want is not what most politicians want to promote and talk about, which is unrestricted abortion care. To not capitalize on the current momentum and to just settle for the Roe standard is upsetting to a lot of us. (Emphasis mine.)
Leftist politicians do want unrestricted abortion care — they just don’t necessarily want to “promote and talk about” it, as Lopez pointed out. Perhaps the most strikingly cynical example of abortion rhetoric came from Rep. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., running this year for Michigan’s open Senate seat. Slotkin essentially told Politico she has moderated her rhetoric, not because she doesn’t believe in abortion on demand, but because she has to win over the votes of people who disagree with her:
I’ve had women tell me the reason they support a right to choose is because of cases of rape and incest and the very common experience of miscarriage. … Is that the only reason why people ever get an abortion? No. But if I’m trying to get women in my state the right to have an abortion, I need the help of women who consider themselves pro-life.
And the Democrats’ march to the left on abortion hasn’t remained confined to Washington.
Ideological Litmus Test
The day after the Politico story on Biden’s rhetoric appeared, the same publication published a feature article about the abortion debate in the nation’s heartland. It spotlighted how in Nebraska — previously home to pro-life Democrat officials like Sens. Bob Kerrey and Ben Nelson — the party has turned sharply left on abortion.
Politico highlighted the case of state Sen. Mike McDonell, a Democrat whose strong Roman Catholic beliefs informed his pro-life values. The state Democrat Party recently censured McDonell for his pro-life stance, coupled with his opposition to the left’s transgender agenda.
In an interview, state party Chair Jane Kleeb admitted that support for abortion had become a de facto litmus test for Democrats: “We need our elected Democrats to protect women’s reproductive rights, period. … There’s no more squishy middle in that, and I think that has changed in the last four years. … When he [McDonell] got elected four years ago, we did not have the Supreme Court decision” in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned Roe and sent the abortion issue back to the states.
Ken Riter, a leftist activist in Omaha, went even further in adding woke litmus tests for Democrat politicians. He expressed little interest in voting for a Democrat like McDonell for mayor of Omaha because, “I think Democrats should send a message that if you’re not going to support our key constituencies — women and gay people and especially trans people right now — why should we support you?”
There you have it. A party that claims to want “choice,” but ostracizes those who think differently on the issue of protecting innocent human life. So much for the party of tolerance.
