Donald Trump’s “Town Hall” with MSNBC’s Chris Matthews this week opened up a discussion on what it means to be Pro-Life.
Anti-Abortionists have framed their philosophy into a simple idiom that sounds pretty positive. Pro-Life. It is easy for people to say they are Pro-Life, but what does it really mean?
The following is a Facebook Friend explaining what he means by being a Pro-Lifer:
“It’s not an opinion that an abortion kills a human being. It a fact. Being “pro life” is not a war on women. It is in support of NOT ending the life of a human being. Simple argument actuall’y. God and or religion have nothing to do with it. If you are having an abortion you know for a fact that there is a human life inside you. One that you are saying you don’t want to deal with. So you abort it. I can’t pretend to know what trump said or meant.”–a Facebook friend on being “Pro-Life”
He takes “Pro-Life” literally–“Not ending the life of a human being” and that having an abortion is taking a human life. Many sees abortion as a personal decision. Others feel driven to make sure no abortions take place in the United States.
Rachel Maddow, on Thursday (3/31), opened her show discussing the Anti-Abortion Pro-
Life Activists recent history. That includes the organizations that publish pictures and home addresses of doctors who perform legal abortions. (You can watch the video of the segment is at the end of this article.)
She ended the segment pointing out that Pro-Life Activists don’t believe in abortions, and they do not “think that a woman has a right to have an abortion if she wants one. If you are pro-life you think there isn’t a right to get an abortion.”
Rachel pointed out:
- When politicians say they are pro-life they will govern to get abortions outlawed
- If our country outlaws abortions, getting an abortion would be a crime
- Anyone having an abortion would be a criminal
- The government will use the criminal law to monitor every pregnancy and
- force every woman who gets pregnant to take it to full term and give birth, even if that is against her will
- If you have a miscarriage the physical evidence of your miscarriage is potential criminal evidence. The site of the miscarriage will be treated like a crime scene
Grim thoughts. Impossible you might think. Extreme liberal who lets her mind wander too far. But, there are groups whose mission is to make abortion illegal. They have great influence in Republican Party Politics.
If you dismiss Trump’s statement because he is a rookie politician and didn’t do his homework, you can’t dismiss Ted Cruz and his Pro-Lifers for Cruz coalition. It has 11 anti-abortion co-chairs who are very active activists. They include the president of Operation Rescue Tony Perkins, who is a board member of the group responsible for those infamous Planned Parenthood videos. Ken Cuccinelli, another chairman, is the former Attorney General of Virginia who has said he opposes abortion even when the pregnancy is a health risk to the woman.
Cruz’s Press Release announcing his “Pro-Lifers for Cruz” coalition can be seen here.
John Kasich keeps reminding us that he is the only candidate who has executive responsibility, but he doesn’t bring up his pro-life stance. As governor of Ohio, Kasich has signed every bill restricting abortions that has been passed by the Ohio legislature. They include:
- blocking women healthcare providers from receiving any state or federal funds if they provide abortions, even funding for services other than abortions
- banning abortions after 20 weeks
- requires a woman to have an ultrasound, and going through other unnecessary acts, before having an abortion
- requiring abortion clinics to have transfer agreements with private hospitals no more than 30 miles away, which is impossible in many areas
- Seven of the 26 (27%) Ohio abortion providers have closed (or ended giving abortions) since Kasich took office in 2010
Kasich has been quietly guiding legation to make abortions illegal in Ohio.
I understand that individuals who feel that they are Pro-Life lets others follow their conscience. They are different from Pro-Life politicians or activists who want to ban all abortions.
Rep. Tom Reed, who supports Donald Trump, said, “I am unapologetically pro-life” in a September, 2015 Press Release explaining why is he will not approve funding for Planned Parenthood.
The following video is the March 31 Rachel Maddow segment dealing with Pro-Life activist groups and what our country will be like if having an abortion is illegal.
New NY 23rd 
It seems crazy that some who claim to revere the Constitution would prevent a women’s exercise of her constitutional rights.
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Except they don’t revere the Constitution.They revere authoritarianism.
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The Republican politicians’ desires to crush womens’ and families’ rightful ability to choose planning their parenthood is one hundred-eighty degrees from China’s “one child per couple only” policy.
China’s policy resulted in the abortion, and murder of thousands of live births of females; China’s society places preference on male births. The policies of both the American Republican politicians and the Chinese government’s is equal in their abuse of power, demeaning of women (families) in general, and both only contribute to the deaths from abortion by women and young girls.
China’s government may have believed the over population of China created the dire need to decrease the over burdened ability to serve her people, by condemning more than one birth per family – but what exactly is the excuse for American Republicans to decide that all pregnancies must be carried to full term (even in cases of the fetus being dead in side the woman’s womb)?
Beyond cruel and cynical, Republican policy has no more respect ” for life” than the Chinese government’s.
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One of the things I’ve noted over the years about various “pro-life advocates” is that their deep concern for children ends the moment the fetus exits the womb. In addition, it’s remarkable how much they wave aside biology. No physician can tell you exactly when fertilization occurs, outside of test tube. They do know that up to a third of all fertilized eggs either pass through without implanting, or implant at the wrong time and are passed out as a “silent miscarriage.” Under their belief system, and attempts to pass that into law, it makes all women criminals.
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The question to ask Trump is “What does it mean to be pro life.” The next question is ” if you consider abortion to be murder, than why is it ok to murder rape and incest babies?” My final point is that for a candidate who claims that he doesn’t need to be politically correct, Trump’s flip flopping is doing exactly that -finding ways to be politically correct.
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