By CHRISTOPHER MANION
Well, the election is over — sort of — so governors, legislatures, and courts in fifty states will now be front and center in the battle for life as the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization takes effect.
Unfortunately, the end of Roe v. Wade doesn’t mean the end of abortion. Of course, in some states with pre-existing or trigger laws, it did. But in other states it has had the unhappy consequence of actually expanding abortions.
California, for example, now offers to pay mothers from other states to visit a California abortuary to end their baby’s life. Pro-abortion governors in other Democrat states, like Illinois and Maryland, are also promoting their abortion businesses, advertising their “services” to women in neighboring states that have stronger pro-life laws.
Their message? “Come visit us to abort your baby!”
The elections have now made clear that the Democrats are the Party of Abortion and Death in America. Any Democrat running on that ticket for national office has to take the “Death Pledge” to survive.
In the House, the reelection of Henry Cuellar (D., Texas), who often votes against abortion extremism, is the exception that proves the rule. The abortion industry threw millions into the campaign of Jessica Cisneros, his opponent in the Democrat primary. Cisneros was duly endorsed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) and Cong. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.), and she almost won.
On November 8, Cuellar defeated Republican Cassy Garcia to become the only remaining pro-life Democrat U.S. representative.
In the Senate, Joe Manchin (D., W.Va.) is the sole Democrat daring to support keeping the Helms Amendment in force to prevent federal taxpayer funding of abortion. He will run again in 2024, and emboldened abortion advocates might well try to defeat him as well.
After all, Democrats spent some $320 million on abortion campaign ads this year — ten times what they spent on crime and the economy. Where did all those millions come from? Well, abortion is a Big Business, and its coffers are constantly resupplied by woke billionaires, Hollywood celebs, cryptocurrency Ponzi crooks, and taxpayer dollars going to Planned Parenthood and its “nonprofit” allies.
Biden Kills Babies. Pass It On
While Joe Biden’s desiccated caricature mumbles mindlessly the threat of “nationalizing Roe v. Wade,” his very capable shadow cabal is pushing every lever in the massive federal behemoth to make it happen on the ground, one dead baby at a time.
Consider just one example of hundreds: Last month Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III issued a directive asserting that enforcement of state pro-life laws after Dobbs might place “unusual, extraordinary, hardship” on military personnel seeking to abort their unborn children.
Curiously, Austin’s argument resonates that of many in the corporate, educational, and nonprofit community. There, enlightened elites have adopted progressive policies that essentially pay employees to abort their babies. All of them.
These institutions even grant “abortion leave” and compensation during the mother’s absence.
In a classic case of feminism’s triumph over family, businesses recognize that the economic cost of such policies is much lower than the cost of hiring and training a new temporary employee to replace the woman who chooses to take pregnancy and family leave to bring her baby into the world alive.
As Austin puts it, a pregnant service member who chooses to bear her child to term will “interfere with our ability to recruit, retain, and maintain the readiness of a highly qualified force.”
Reminds me of what the Ottoman sultans of old did to their own fighting force, the Janissaries:
They castrated them all.
Austin’s approach works for employees in the private sector, of course. That’s why some top-flight media, entertainment, and public relations firms privately require female employees to sign a guarantee that they will not bear a child for ten years from the date of employment.
Of course, Austin’s diktat has no foundation in law. That the Biden Junta should embrace such taxpayer-funded atrocities merely reflect Catholic Joe’s mania for murder of the unborn.
And Now, The Ground Game
This month’s elections laid the groundwork for battles in states throughout the country. In governors’ races, Republican challengers were defeated in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Maryland, which means that pro-life legislative efforts in those states will need super-majorities to be enacted into law.
However, John Gizzi reports that “no fewer than 12 strongly pro-life Republican governors were elected and not a single one was unseated . . . [the winners include] Kay Ivey of Alabama, Ron DeSantis of Florida, Brian Kemp of Georgia, Brad Little of Idaho, Kim Reynolds of Iowa, Mike DeWine of Ohio, Kevin Stitt of Oklahoma, Henry McMaster of South Carolina, Kristi Noem of South Dakota, Bill Lee of Tennessee, Greg Abbott of Texas, and Mark Gordon of Wyoming.”
While there were many victories, there were some disappointing setbacks as well.
Michigan’s Proposition 3, which allows abortion up to birth, passed by a margin of 55.8 percent to 44.2 percent, thanks to an estimated $60 million that the pro-abortion movement spent on this initiative alone.
Proposition 3 reads: “Every individual has a fundamental right to reproductive freedom, which entails the right to make and effectuate decisions about all matters relating to pregnancy, including but not limited to prenatal care, childbirth, postpartum care, contraception, sterilization, abortion care, miscarriage management, and infertility care.”
In Vermont, Proposal 5, a pro-abortion amendment to the state constitution passed by a margin of 77.4 percent to 22.6 percent. It reads:
“That an individual’s right to personal reproductive autonomy is central to the liberty and dignity to determine one’s own life course and shall not be denied or infringed unless justified by a compelling State interest achieved by the least restrictive means.”
In California, voters approved Proposition 1 by a margin of almost two to one. It amends the state constitution to read, “The state shall not deny or interfere with an individual in their most intimate decisions, which includes their fundamental right to choose to have an abortion and their fundamental right to choose or refuse contraceptives.”
While the language in these measures is intentionally vague with no mention of “abortion,” those pro-life proposals that failed are specific and clear.
In Montana, Legislative Referendum 131, a measure to protect newborns surviving abortion and guaranteeing that they would receive proper medical care, failed by 52 percent to 48 percent.
The measure reads as follows:
“An act adopting the Born-Alive Infant Protection Act; providing that infants born alive, including infants born alive after an abortion, are legal persons; requiring health-care providers to take necessary actions to preserve the life of a born-alive infant; providing a penalty; providing that the proposed act be submitted to the qualified electors of Montana; and providing an effective date.”
In Kentucky, Constitutional Amendment 2, the “No Right to Abortion in Constitution Amendment,” failed 52.4 percent to 47.6 percent to add the following language to the state’s Bill of Rights:
“To protect human life, nothing in this Constitution shall be construed to secure or protect a right to abortion or require the funding of abortion.”
Let’s Close The Gap
And Win For Life
Especially worthy of note are the close margins for those measures defeated in Kentucky, Montana, and Michigan.
Consider: For the past fifty years, “A Woman’s Right to Choose” has replaced the Ten Commandments in every public building and classroom.
The Culture of Death rules. The propaganda has dominated the public conversation, including the education of two generations of voters, while the facts of life have been spitefully derided, if not ignored altogether.
Now the battle for life returns to the state level. There, our efforts will have a greater impact. As Americans hear the unfiltered truths about life in the womb from their neighbors and friends, those voting margins can be turned around and strengthened in one state after another.
Yes, pro-abortion forces will rage, but we now have the truth and the Constitution on our side.
This is a battle we can win. It’s time to hit the trenches.
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