Article by Paula Bolyard in PJMedia
I've Had It With These 'Pro-Life Evangelicals for Biden.' You Can't Be Pro-Life and Pro-Biden
Let’s get one thing straight. Abortion is the intentional taking of a human life. Whether by scalpel or chemical abortifacient, abortion ends the life of a human being—a child with his own fingerprints, heartbeat, brain waves, and DNA. A child who can feel pain beginning at 12 weeks after conception.
Let’s get another thing straight: You can’t be pro-life and pro-Joe Biden.
Some so-called evangelicals think they can have it both ways. In an op-ed at the Christian Post, Ron Sider and Richard Mouw defend a statement urging pro-life evangelicals to vote for Joe Biden.
“Climate change already kills untold thousands and will soon kill tens of millions unless we change,” the pair writes. “The overwhelming scientific consensus is that unless we quickly reduce the amount of greenhouse gases causing global warming that we send into the atmosphere, many millions will die. The poor will suffer the most. But Donald Trump denies the near scientific consensus on climate change and has made numerous policy decisions that make things much worse. Climate change is a pro-life issue.”
“As pro-life evangelicals, we disagree with Vice President Biden and the Democratic platform on the issue of abortion,” the statement declares, “But we believe that a biblically shaped commitment to the sanctity of human life compels us to a consistent ethic of life that affirms the sanctity of human life from beginning to end.”
What does the statement’s “consistent ethic of life” look like?
Many things that good political decisions could change destroy persons created in the image of God and violate the sanctity of human life. Poverty kills millions every year. So does lack of healthcare and smoking. Racism kills. Unless we quickly make major changes, devastating climate change will kill tens of millions. Poverty, lack of accessible health care services, smoking, racism and climate change are all pro-life issues.
Drawing a moral equivalence between some dubious “climate change” policy and killing a child by ripping him from his mother’s womb, limb from limb, is beyond the pale.
Comparing child-murder to smoking, wherein adults willingly inhale carcinogens, is patently dishonest. So is comparing the deaths of more than 600,000 innocent children per year at the hands of abortionists—26.2 out of every 1,000 black children conceived—to the deaths of 235 black people at the hands of police last year. Hear what I am not saying: I am not justifying illegal police brutality, nor am I minimizing the deaths of those unjustly killed by law enforcement. What I am saying is that, as a matter of scale, abortion is far and away the more prolific crime against humanity. That doesn’t mean we cannot also call for reforms in policing and sentencing, but we cannot ignore the legal genocide of the unborn—their blood cries out for justice form the trash bins where they’ve been dumped.
This genocide is defended and even celebrated by the Democratic Party, which has become so radical on the issue of abortion that it’s booted virtually every pro-life Democrat out of the party. To wit, their 2020 party platform:
- Every woman should be able to access high-quality reproductive health care services, including safe and legal abortion.
- We will restore federal funding for Planned Parenthood
- Democrats oppose and will fight to overturn federal and state laws that create barriers to women’s reproductive health and rights.
- We will repeal the Hyde Amendment, and protect and codify Roe v. Wade
Don’t miss that last phrase: Democrats want to codify Roe v. Wade into law—a move that would strip states of their ability to regulate abortion in any way, including insisting on basic safety standards for abortion clinics.
Oh, but the abortion rate is declining, the so-called pro-life Biden apologists claim! That proves we don’t need to regulate abortion, we merely need to address the root causes! Oh really? Could it be that state abortion regulations are doing exactly what they’re intended to —reducing abortions? Hasn’t the pro-genocide crowd been shrieking nonstop about the lack of access to abortions? Their hysteria gives lie to the claim that Republicans have accomplished nothing in the way of curbing abortion.
Root-cause policies will only take you so far. You won’t hear anyone arguing that we should make rape safe, legal, and rare and instead address the root causes of sexual assault. Arguing that we can reduce abortion by making it legal lacks both cogency and seriousness.
And claims that “Trump isn’t really pro-life”? Maybe he is and maybe he isn’t, deep in his heart. We can’t read his mind. What we can do is look at the policies he’s advanced that promote the sanctity of human life. The Susan B. Anthony List has a roundup:
- Appointed pro-life judges
- Permitted states to defund Planned Parenthood of Title X funds
- Stopped tax dollars funding overseas abortions
- Defunded the pro-abortion United Nations Population Fund
- Required health insurance companies to disclose if plans cover abortion
- Settlements and new rule regarding HHS mandates
- Strong pro-life appointments to key positions
- New office for Conscious Protection at HHS
- Allowed states to defund Planned Parenthood of Medicaid funds
- Cut Planned Parenthood’s tax funding by up to $60 million
- Canceled contract for taxpayer-funded experimentation on body parts of aborted babies
- Allowed Texas to fund health program that does not send funds to abortion businesses
- Took action against California for violating conscience protections
- Clarified that abortion is not a civil right
- First president to speak at the March for Life
- Signed an executive order protecting infants born alive
But don’t take their word for it. Even Planned Parenthood agrees that Trump has thrown up roadblocks to abortion and put the brakes on funding the worldwide abortion-industrial complex.
The president doesn’t have the power to ban abortion, but he can choke off their funding, thereby reducing the number of abortions. In other words, Trump’s policies have saved lives. If Joe Biden becomes president, more babies will die.
If your conscience won’t allow you to vote for Trump, fine. Don’t vote for him (I didn’t in 2016). But don’t try to pretend that you’re voting pro-life if you pull the lever for Biden and Harris, who are committed to abortion on demand. Shame on these liberal “evangelicals” trying to convince all of us that voting for enthusiastically pro-abortion candidates is the best way to demonstrate that we care about the sanctity of human life. Own up to the fact that you’re willing to sacrifice the bodies of tiny babies on the altar of your hatred for Trump.
