This weeks claim...
“Is Kamala's America safe for women?"
What They Say.
Central to Vice President Kamala Harris’ cyclonic bid for the presidency is her fight for "reproductive freedom." Clearly supportive of unrestricted abortion rights, Harris has vowed to restore federal abortion protections similar to those under Roe v Wade. Her avid supporters have called this a “stark departure” from President Biden who they feel struggled to enthusiastically support abortion as he tried to retain a veneer of Catholicism. Some abortion-rights activists feel Kamala's position falls short, arguing that Roe allowed states to ban abortion later in pregnancy and imposed restrictions like mandatory waiting periods and clinic regulations that led to many abortion clinic closures. In other words, the left is saying that Harris’ extreme views on abortion are not extreme enough. And she is listening. Her past record supports sweeping expansion of abortion, removal of state-imposed regulations, and taxpayer funding of abortion services.
But is Harris' vision safe for women?
Women's Choice Network has been meeting with those facing unplanned pregnancies for decades. Abortion has offered women a false choice between fertility and freedom and has delivered neither. Abortion has not delivered on any of its promises. It is not safe and it is not rare. It has not lifted women out of poverty. It has not advanced women in their careers or in their relationships. It has not contributed to the health of children or the wellbeing of families. It has allowed men to continue with poor behavior and has separated them from decisions about their own children.
Abortion is not “just” or "equitable." In fact, it disproportionally targets and impacts black women. In Allegheny County, 43% of abortions are suffered by black women yet they comprise only 13% of the population. Because of the readily available abortion pill, this life altering decision is no longer between a woman and her doctor. And as more and more women order these pills online and suffer an abortion alone, in their bathrooms, it can certainly not be considered “healthcare.” Expanding abortion services to include all nine months of pregnancy means that women will be “free” to abort a fully formed pain-capable human being until the baby’s due date.
Does Abortion Make Women "More Free"?
How does all of this “reproductive freedom” impact women? After 50 years of abortion rights, are we indeed more free? US Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg says yes, at least for men. “Men are also more free in a country where we have a president who stands up for things like access to abortion care,” he said recently at a #WhiteDudesForKamala event. “Of course,” he repeated, praising the Vice President’s abortion themed campaign, “Men are more free.” Let's stop and ask ourselves, free to do what?
So... in Kamala’s America, men (at least the White Dudes for Kamala) will be more free. Can we say the same about women? In Kamala’s America, the sweeping expansion of “reproductive freedom” promises us that abortion clinics will be deregulated, facility safeguards will be abandoned, and gestational age of the child will no longer be regarded. The Dobbs decision that overturned the Roe v Wade status quo put abortion legislation and regulation back in the hands of individual states (I believe we used to call this “Democracy”). And as a result, 43 states currently have some restrictions on abortion. Most are common sense protections for women like a 24-hour waiting period, informed consent, facility requirements (such as hallways that accommodate medical equipment), regulations about who may perform or prescribe abortions, and in some states, ultrasound is required to determine gestational age. In every other area of healthcare, these types of regulations are viewed as protections that value the patient, not an agenda. Abortion should be no different.
Women should expect informed consent and the highest standard of care. Expanding “abortion rights” has been preferred over women’s health with no regard for her safety or for the human life she is carrying. Accessible “reproductive care” without regulations and common sense safety measures is not care at all. In Kamala’s America, her dangerous agenda comes first, and women’s safety comes second.
The Good and the Best
During a conversation about politics, abortion laws, and exceptions, one of our Network of Life Board Members responded saying, Politics is the art of the possible, the attainable--the art of the next best.
Sadly even the most pro-life public leaders must sometimes settle for the good in place of the best. In their hearts, they are abolitionists, but the work of passing laws (at least for now) is incremental. Their work is to move the ball down the field toward the goal. We must move our culture toward the perfect while we have the imperfect.
But we who are standing for the unborn and their mothers have the responsibility to be the idealist. We look to the future of what's possible. We must reinforce the inestimable value of human life without exception.
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