Posted on August 28,
2023
Haley's Comment
Nikki's debate answer slanders
pro-lifers
by
Daniel
Clark
At the Republican primary debate in Milwaukee, former South
Carolina governor Nikki Haley declared herself to be "unapologetically pro-life." That's literally true, because she isn't
apologizing for her own opposition to abortion; she's only slandering those of
us who share it.
"Let's
find consensus," she said. "Can't we all
agree that we should ban late-term abortions?
Can't we all agree that we should encourage adoptions? Can't we all agree that doctors and nurses
who don't believe in abortion shouldn't have to perform them? Can't we all agree that contraception should
be available? And can't we all agree
that we are not going to put a woman in jail or give her the death penalty if
she gets an abortion?"
This is a little bit like hiring Hannibal Lecter and
Richie Cunningham to house-sit, and saying, "Don't either of you guys eat
anybody while I'm away." Haley's rhetorical
questions were meant to imply a phony moral equivalence between advocates and
opponents of abortion, which might explain why she did not invite anybody to
answer them.
No, we cannot all agree to ban late-term abortions,
because the entire Democrat Party from President Biden on down is dedicated to
an absolutist pro-abortion position, which demands that it be legal at any time
for any reason. Believing them when they
say otherwise is always a tragic mistake.
Take the upcoming pro-abortion ballot initiative in Ohio, which is
likely to pass, in part because it disguises its absolutism as a
compromise. The referendum allows for
the banning of abortions after the point of viability, except when it is deemed
necessary by the abortionist.
No, we cannot all agree that we should encourage
adoptions. The abortion industry has
always been hostile toward adoption. The
Guttmacher Institute, which originated as the research division of Planned Parenthood,
published a paper this February that concluded, "Adoption Is Not an Equal
Alternative to Abortion." The faux-study
was unscientifically based on interviews with 29 women who had already had
abortions, and obviously felt the need to rationalize them. Any women who had been persuaded to choose adoption
were omitted from the project by design. Pro-abortion groups routinely denigrate adoption
in their "fact sheets," never
considering it to be a valid "reproductive choice." To them, adoption represents defeat.
No, we cannot all agree that doctors and nurses who don't
believe in abortion shouldn't have to perform them. In fact, Section 1557 of the Affordable Care
Act (a.k.a., Obamacare) attempted to force them to do so, by mischaracterizing one's
refusal to commit the deadly act as an instance of gender discrimination. This rule was thrown out by the Fifth Circuit
Court of Appeals almost exactly a year ago, but the fact remains that
conscience exemptions, and especially the refusal of Catholic hospitals to perform
abortions, are vigorously opposed by those on the pro-abortion side.
By
contrast, the questions Haley put to those of us on her own side are so
agreeable that they're not even worth mentioning, other than for the purpose of
maligning us. Nobody is trying to ban
contraception. The idea that this is
even on the table is a canard that was created by the Democrats and their media
operatives during the 2012 presidential campaign. Part of its purpose is to mislabel abortion drugs
like mifepristone as contraceptives, making it rhetorically more difficult to
oppose them. Haley is now helping them
spread this lie, and she needs to be asked why.
The only person in a position of responsibility who
has hinted at jailing women for having abortions was President Trump, when he
was clumsily trying to make himself sound pro-life, only to have his remarks forcefully
denounced by those who really are. Haley
surely knows this, yet she carries her implied accusation to a ludicrous extreme
by intimating that there are those of us who would execute women for the
offense. This is a feminist martyrdom
fantasy that can only come true in made-for-TV movieland. She only entertains it so that she may triangulate
between her allies and enemies, thereby elevating herself from the fray.
In his 1983 "evil empire" speech to the National
Association of Evangelicals, Ronald Reagan said in regard to the nuclear arms
race, "I urge you to beware the temptation of pride, the temptation to blithely
declare yourself above it all and label both sides equally at fault ... and
thereby remove yourself from the struggle between right and wrong and good and
evil." Nikki Haley is in the process of
removing herself from that struggle.
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