OPINION:
Our oldest son, Matthew, will turn 25 in June.
Tonette and I still have his first baby picture. It was an ultrasound taken during pregnancy.
Matt was laying on his side. His hand was out. And it looked like he was sucking his thumb.
I was pro-life long before that photo, but there was no denying it after that ultrasound. We still have it. As we do with the ultrasound for our other son, Alex.
The ultrasound images are visual reminders of the importance of protecting innocent life.
That’s right. They’re not pieces of tissue. They’re not fetuses. They’re unborn babies.
Years ago, I remember debating a piece of legislation that would designate two separate crimes for someone who hurt a pregnant mother and her unborn child. The pro-abortion forces were proclaiming that the bill was not necessary.
At the time, Matt was a baby and Tonette was pregnant with Alex. “What if a drunk driver hit our mini-van, injured Tonette and killed our unborn son?” I asked. It was a horrible thought.
I continued, “Would you send our family a get well card or a sympathy card?
Most decent people would send a sympathy card. Why? Because — in that horrible hypothetical example — we would have lost a child.
Defenders of abortion on demand did not like the example because anyone sending a sympathy card would have acknowledged that a human life was lost.
Which is why the current debate is so interesting.
Remember Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam’s horrific comments on Jan. 30?
“The infant would be delivered; the infant would be kept comfortable; the infant would be resuscitated if that’s what the mother and the family desire, and then a discussion would ensue between the physicians and the mother.”
If the same family took “the infant” home from the hospital and then decided to kill the child, they would be guilty of murder.
How is what the governor of Virginia described different?
Think about it: A baby is delivered. The baby is kept comfortable. Then the family gets to decide whether the baby lives or dies.
Mr. Northam is OK with that. What he’s talking about isn’t infanticide. It isn’t live-birth abortion. It’s murder.
And he is actually considered to be one of the more moderate Democratic office-holders. Which makes it crystal clear: Pro-life voters are no longer welcome in the Democratic Party in America.
Interestingly, the reaction isn’t what many in the media expected. A recent Marist Poll at Marist College shows an equal number of Americans (47 percent) identified themselves as pro-life as those who support abortion. An early poll showed those supporting abortion at 55 percent to 38 percent calling themselves pro-life.
Even more interesting was the movement in self-proclaimed Democrats and younger voters. The number of Democrats who identified as pro-life was up 20 percent from a poll in January. Young people went from 65 percent favoring abortion in the earlier poll and 28 percent pro-life to 48 percent and 47 percent, respectively.
The biggest blow for those supporting laws like the ones being debated in Virginia and New York is that the poll showed that Americans — by a wide margin of 71 percent to 25 percent — believe that abortion generally should be illegal during the third trimester of pregnancy. The poll director said in a press release: “Current proposals that promote late-term abortion have reset the landscape and language on abortion in a pronounced, and very measurable way.”
Arguments for late-term abortion are largely falling on deaf ears across America. The more people learn, the more likely they are to move toward the pro-life point of view.
In sharp contrast, the candidates for president on the Democratic ticket are moving even further to the left on this issue. When the members of the U.S. Senate voted on the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, all six senators seeking the Democratic nomination for president voted against the bill. So the American people are becoming more pro-life while the candidates running for president are becoming even more extreme on abortion. Maybe that is why Hollywood seems to be doing so much to keep audiences from watching the movie “Unplanned.” Despite an unwarranted “R” rating and Twitter shutting down its feed last Saturday, the movie grossed more than $6 million on the opening weekend.
There is an entire industry that doesn’t want people to see images like the first baby photo taken by ultrasound. They don’t want people to feel the pain that an unborn child feels when her or his life is taken from an abortion. And they definitely don’t want people to hear the cries when an abortion is performed after a child has been born.
All the more reason we need to tell them.
• Scott Walker was the 45th governor of Wisconsin. You can contact him at swalker@washingtontimes.com or follow him @ScottWalker.
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