OPINION:
California Gov. Gavin Newsom is refusing to renew a contract worth $54 million with Walgreens because pharmacy executives have decided, on the heels of legal threats from several attorneys general, not to sell abortion pills in states led by Republicans.
This is a prime example of Democrats trying to strong-arm a political foe into submission, all the while crowing about their party’s tolerance and diversity and respect for all.
“California will not stand by as corporations cave to extremists and cut off critical access to reproductive care and freedom,” Newsom said. “California is on track to be the fourth largest economy in the world and we will leverage our market power to defend the right to choose.”
Right to choose?
Women already have a right to choose — and so do men. It’s called a right to choose whether or not to engage in sexual intercourse. Minus rape, that choice is alive and well and still very much available, yes, even to Californians.
When that choice ends in pregnancy, though, so, too, does any further real, genuine, moral and proper “right to choose.” That’s when consequences for choice kick in; that’s when a third party — a growing baby — enters the picture.
Women who don’t wish to get pregnant shouldn’t have sex. Men who don’t wish to impregnate a woman shouldn’t have sex. But tell that to today’s culture, to today’s youth, to today’s sex-addicted lust-filled secularists, and the response is gasp and outrage.
My body, my choice!
You can’t tell me what to do!
You Jesus freaks need to get lost!
Wail away; rail away. Abortion is not a form of birth control. And no matter how many Democrats yowl it is — that it’s just another option a woman has at her disposal, alongside the patch, the vaginal ring, the shot, the diaphragm, and more — truth is, it’s not.
Halting a life, no matter how cellular versus physically formed that life, is still called killing. And when killing is done willfully, with full knowledge and intent, it’s called murder. Please address all complaints to God.
The abortion pill, also known as a medication abortion, stops the pregnancy in its tracks. It’s a two-step process that includes ingesting mifepristone followed by misoprostol. The first halts the pregnancy; the second forcibly empties the uterus; both pills carry a range of side effects and risk factors, including nausea, cramping, bleeding and pain.
Planned Parenthood describes it as akin to a miscarriage.
Planned Parenthood also refuses to use the term “baby” in its description of the deed. Why? It’s more clinical, less personal — less jarring — that way.
An example: “The cramping and bleeding can last for several hours,” Planned Parenthood wrote on its website. “Most people finish passing the pregnancy tissue in 4-5 hours, but it may take longer. The cramping and bleeding slows down after the pregnancy tissue comes out.”
Pregnancy tissue is abortion-friendly for growing baby.
If you’re of the belief that life starts at conception — if you’re of the belief that God forms His children in the womb, and that before He creates His children in the womb, He already knows them — then the phrase “pregnancy tissue” is a phrase of great offense. If you’re not of the belief, well then, that doesn’t change the fact it’s true. Some of the sharpest minds, after all, once argued the world was flat.
The soft-on-truth language of the abortion industry is designed to cover the ugliness and evils of the procedure. Don’t women deserve to know the truth so they can make fully informed decisions? More examples of Democrats’ respect for others.
Enough of politicians trying to use the private sector to advance their own political agendas, though.
For more than three years, Americans suffered at the hands of despotic, tyrannical leftists, a.k.a. Democrats, who wielded COVID-19 swords to intimidate private businesses into locking down, forcing people into face masks, forcing customers to space out and keep away, to order online and shop from their cars. Businesses around the nation posted signs on their store front windows declaring, “Face Masks Required: It’s the Law” — all the while blithely ignoring the fact that it wasn’t law but rather a bureaucratic dictate. Under COVID, the free market was weaponized against the people to do government’s bidding. Government has to play by the rules of the Constitution; the private sector has more freedom to regulate; Democrats happily exploited this particular facet of American enterprise and liberty to control and dominate the people.
Now Newsom wants to use that same government power to force Walgreens into doing his abortion pill bidding.
Moreover, he wants to stretch his governor powers beyond California, by sticking his nose in Walgreen’s business dealings in other states.
Talk about arrogance.
Newsom, the same guy who used COVID to shut down churches in his state — who tried to stop church-goers from singing in their churches — all the while keeping open marijuana dispensaries — all the while attending parties minus the very face mask he bullied businesses into mandating for everyone else — yes, this Newsom, this hypocritical tyrannical Newsom, now wants to use the same thuggish political tactics against a pharmacy chain.
“California is pulling back its renewal of a multi-million dollar contract with @Walgreens following their decision not to dispense abortion medication in 21 states, including states where abortion remains legal,” read one recent tweet from the Office of the Governor of California’s account. It should be noted that Walgreens was pulling mifepristone because Republicans have threatened legal action; in a statement, company spokesperson Fraser Engerman said, as Breitbart noted, “[We] will dispense only in those jurisdictions where it is legal to do so if we are certified.”
A simple ‘mind your own business, guv’nor’ should apply here.
But Democrats have drank from the cup of COVID and they’ve acquired an unquenchable thirst for that control, and they discovered how easy it was to get private businesses to do their unconstitutional and immoral government bidding. From face masking to abortion pills — the possibilities are endless. If Newsom wants to fall on the sword of abortion, so be it. He’s a whispered presidential candidate for the Democrat Party in 2024. No doubt, baby killing will be just as big a draw for leftist voters then as it is now.
But there’s a higher power who is observing and taking notes. And once again, just because Democrats don’t believe that doesn’t make it untrue.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter and podcast by clicking HERE. Her latest book, “Lockdown: The Socialist Plan To Take Away Your Freedom,” is available by clicking HERE or clicking HERE or CLICKING HERE.
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