After Sen. Ben Sasse’s Born-alive Abortion Survivors Act failed to garner the 60 votes necessary to overcome a filibuster, Trump and the GOP jumped on the opportunity to turn the vote into an anti-Democrat campaign issue to raise funds and steal votes going into 2020.
It makes sense when you think about it. After all, what better way to distract the base and redirect their attention away from two years of failure to advance the pro-life agenda while still funding Planned Parenthood. Not to mention their 46 years of failure to defend life since Roe v. Wade.
But Republicans aren’t the only ones playing political football with the bodies of murdered unborn babies, and Planned Parenthood isn’t the only enterprise out there raking in the dough from the slaughter. Sadly, many of the organizations wearing the pro-life label are also cashing in, and for that reason, they are teaming up with Republicans and Planned Parenthood to keep the abortion industry open for business.
Three recent events underscore my point.
In Oklahoma, with a pro-life governor and where Republicans outnumber Democrats 39-to-9 in the State Senate and 77-to-24 in the State House, a bill entitled “The Abolition of Abortion in Oklahoma Act” (SB13) has been introduced. Slam dunk, right? Wrong.
Abortion remains legal in Oklahoma because National Right to Life VP Tony Lauinger opposes SB13 and has successfully lobbied key Republicans to keep it from passing. He claims to oppose it because it’s “unconstitutional” under Roe v. Wade, even though there is no constitutional right to abortion. In reality, Lauinger opposes SB13 because he wants current Oklahoma laws regarding abortion — which he helped create — to remain even though they still allow abortions to occur.
Next, we go to Indiana where a bill entitled the “Protection at Conception Act” (HB1430) was recently introduced. The title of the bill makes the intent of this legislation perfectly clear, yet it didn’t even receive a hearing thanks to Indiana House Committee on Public Policy Chairman Ben Smaltz.
According to Smaltz — who opposed a similar bill in 2017 — laws protecting life at conception are “catastrophic” to the pro-life movement and are unconstitutional. If that sounds familiar to the Oklahoma situation, it’s because National Right to Life is behind the opposition in Indiana just as it was in Oklahoma.
By the way, Indiana Right to Life endorsed Smaltz in 2018 over his challenger William Carlin who ran on a platform in support of the Protection at Conception Act.
That brings us to the third event. In Idaho, the “Abortion Human Rights Act” was recently introduced, a measure that would end abortion in the state. But just as it was in Oklahoma and Indiana, a so-called pro-life Republican in the Idaho State Senate, Fred Martin, won’t advance it because he says it’s “unconstitutional” and would “destroy the pro-life movement.”
And yep, you guessed it. Idaho Right to Life is leading the opposition to this one too.
In all three of these cases, Republicans and the National Right to Life or their local chapters opposed bills designed to abolish abortion. Why? I think Sen. Martin answered that question when he said that abolishing abortion would “destroy the pro-life movement.” In other words, the pro-life movement and their Republican buddies will be out of business if the abortion industry is shut down.
Unfortunately, this means we’re likely to see them continue doing all they can to prevent the end of abortion in America. Why? Because their bank accounts depend on it.
David Leach is the owner of The Strident Conservative. His politically incorrect and always “right” columns are also featured on NOQReport.com.
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