How the Coronavirus affects abortion politics
Right or wrong, politics play a part in most crises. Iowans for LIFE is acutely concerned with its impact on abortion politics.
The Protect Life Amendment update
At the state level, the Protect Life Amendment is on hold, as the legislative session has been suspended for the next thirty days. As review, the Amendment passed the Iowa Senate. It passed out of the House judiciary committee, followed by a public hearing. Iowans for LIFE testified at every hearing.
All that’s left this session is a vote by the Iowa House. If it passes both houses this session, we need to do it again next. And then it will be ready for a statewide vote by the people. If it passes that final hurdle, the Iowa Constitution will be amended, making it abortion-neutral.
The uncertainty of this session has us all on edge, but the Iowa Coalition of Pro-Life leaders remains in regular contact with legislators. We will inform you of breaking news as soon as we learn more.
Coronavirus stimulus bill
At the federal level, the White House asserted that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi tried to slip taxpayer funded abortions into a Coronavirus stimulus bill:
“A new mandatory funding stream that does not have Hyde protections would be unprecedented. Under the guise of protecting people, Speaker Pelosi is working to make sure taxpayer dollars are spent covering abortion — which is not only backwards, but goes against historical norms.”
Another White House official asked:
“What the Hyde Amendment and abortion have to do with protecting Americans from coronavirus?”
IFL Executive Director, Maggie DeWitte, reacted to pro-life Congressional member’s successful efforts at removing abortion from the bill:
IFL Executive Director, Maggie DeWitte
“Pro-life legislators have to be on constant alert to look for back-door maneuvers to slip abortion funding into what appear to be innocuous bills. Thanks to the president and his administration for looking out for unborn Americans.”
Pro-life Democrat loses a primary election
In the midst of this health crisis, primary elections took place in three states this week, and another, Ohio, cancelled theirs until a later date. Notably, one of the few remaining pro-life Democrats, Illinois Congressman Dan Lipinski, was defeated by the pro-abortion candidate, Marie Newman.
Lipinski was an eight term incumbent, but that wasn’t enough to stem the tide against Newman, who was backed by a who’s who of Big Abortion, including Emily’s List and NARAL. For good measure, pro-abortion New York Congresswoman, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, actively supported Newman.
Beware future pro-abortion maneuvering
If Newman retains Lipinski’s seat for the Democrats this Fall, it tilts one more vote in the House to the side of Big Abortion. This is more than just worrisome for pro-lifers. As the federal government discerns unprecedented Big Government interventions to prop up our economy during this crisis, the opportunity for more pro-abortion maneuverings increases, especially if the Senate and White House switch parties after November’s elections.
For example, Bernie Sanders calls for a government stake in companies who receive government loans during the Coronavirus crisis. If the party of abortion is in power, they will certainly insist that human abortion services be provided in a company’s healthcare plan, a backdoor way of accomplishing what Sander’s “Medicare for All” would do.
We saw something similar when Obamacare passed. Although not stated in the legislation, Team Obama/Biden issued an executive order mandating abortion and contraception services be included in the health plans for religious organizations, such as Little Sisters of the Poor, even though it violated their First Amendment freedoms.
Political correctness trumps practical policies
Finally, Iowans for LIFE marvels at the shallowness of some of the debate coming from the corner of the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, Joe Biden. His spokesperson, Symone Sanders, went on Martha MacCallum’s show (above) to suggest that the President is racist for calling COVOD-19 the ‘Chinese Virus.’ Here is the exchange:
SANDERS: A leader has to lead from the front, and so what President Trump came out and some of what he announced today was good, but the reality is he also stood at the podium and called the coronavirus, COVID-19, what I would suggest is a racial slur. It’s something that that is offensive—
MacCALLUM: Why? Why is that?. Why would it be, to call it a Chinese virus when it originated in China? Why is that a problem?”
SANDERS It is something that is offensive to many Americans and so that reality is, instead of name calling, instead of pointing fingers, instead of talking about poll numbers, let’s just talk about what we can get done.
As Iowans for LIFE has pointed out, the Chinese government imposed monstrous policies on its people under the guise of their “One Child Policy.” The government ended this program of forced abortions and sterilizations just four years ago, but not before it prevented 400 million births.
Four-hundred million.
Why would Team Biden choose to make an issue of a virus’s moniker, especially in light of the fact that it actually did originate in China, was covered up by the Chinese government for several critical months, and allowed to spread throughout the world? Why waste time on political correctness when people are actually dying?
Why would Team Biden choose this as the issue to focus on when a dictatorial government has imposed so much harm on its own people and the world?
Where China forced their own citizens to have abortions, the party of abortion in the U.S. wants taxpayers to pay for them, even it means sneaking it into the Coronavirus bill.
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