Commentary: The Democratic Party’s abortion extremism

In reality, left-wing politicians remain troublingly out of step with voters of all stripes on abortion policies.

Abortion supporters march in front of the Supreme Court in May. (Shutterstock)

As their policies fail, our fatuous media hopes to resuscitate Democrats by portraying pro-life views as electorally toxic. Since abortion was properly returned to the states two months ago, the left unironically assumes Americans are happy to accept what their party prefers on abortion policy.

But it’s Democrats, not Republicans, who are extreme on abortion. I don’t care what media says.

“The outliers globally on abortion are Democrats,” AEI Senior Fellow Christine Rosen recently opined on a podcast. “Most European countries, which Democrats love to cite for their social policy, are well within the range of what most Americans and Republicans are saying, which is restrictions after 12-16 weeks. That’s long been the policy of most European countries, and we are the outliers under Roe for decades.”

The facts mean Republicans like Arizona U.S. Senate candidate Blake Masters should not be intimidated into altering his views due to media misinformation about a confusing initiative in Kansas or a close congressional race in upstate New York.

A disappointing result on a state amendment or an August election among 130,000 voters in a swing district isn’t necessarily indicative of how Americans feel. In reality, left-wing politicians remain troublingly out of step with voters of all stripes on abortion policies.

While most polls unfortunately show Americans oppose full protections for unborn children, most also oppose permitting abortion for any reason until birth. Now even self-proclaimed moderate, formerly pro-life Democrats believe in zero restrictions on extinguishing nascent life.

For better or worse, the abortion debate has turned into a messaging battle, and pro-lifers will be more successful if we continue highlighting the barbaric extremism of the other side, while disallowing them and their media allies to put us on defense. Don’t do what Masters did.

Then we have our nation’s second Catholic president. He’s incoherent overall but has mastered one thing: an egregious rejection of his Catholicism — which teaches that abortion is morally wrong — via his relentless promotion of untrammeled, taxpayer-funded abortion. And more than any other in my lifetime, his hapless administration is determined to promote a culture of death.

With a conservative majority Supreme Court, Biden and his congressional allies realized earlier this year that more states would pass pro-life legislation; in response, the president’s allies advocated for eradicating the filibuster and packing the Supreme Court, both unconstitutional and partisan.

Biden then attacked the Hyde Amendment — prohibiting federal abortion funding except in very rare circumstances — which enjoyed bipartisan support, including his, for decades.

This spring, 98% of U.S. Senate Democrats voted for the execrable “Women’s Health Protection Act” to legally cement a right to abort babies up until birth and ban all state restrictions. This piece of abortion legislation was the most radical to ever receive a vote in Congress. Thankfully it failed, but only by one vote.

Biden said his administration would “continue to explore the measures and tools at our disposal to protect access to women’s reproductive care.”

“Reproductive care” is quite the Washington word salad from a man who believed life began at conception just a few years ago.

Meanwhile, crisis pregnancy centers that provide vital care to women in unexpected pregnancies have been vandalized across America this summer, while risible protests at Supreme Court justices’ homes led to an assassination attempt the media downplayed.

It’s a tough battle to stop the misinformation, but in the post-Dobbs era, we need courageous clergygovernors and intrepid red state legislatures, who speak for life and against the immoral evil of abortion. We cannot cower.

As I wrote in late June, a post-Roe world is better for women.

 

A.J. Kaufman

A.J. Kaufman is an Alpha News columnist. His work has appeared in the Baltimore Sun, Florida Sun-Sentinel, Indianapolis Star, Israel National News, Orange County Register, St. Cloud Times, Star-Tribune, and across AIM Media Midwest and the Internet. Kaufman previously worked as a school teacher and military historian.