What happens when a gaffe turns into saying the quiet part out loud?
Well, that’s precisely what happened last night at a campaign rally in Nevada when President Joe Biden, in his effort to slam Trump, instead exposed his party’s own extreme platform.
Biden garbled, "I love how Trump is saying Biden is for abortion on demand. That's not true. That's not what Roe v. Wade said. It said the three trimesters."
And with that, in a rare moment, Joe Biden uttered the truth about Roe.
It’s true, that under Roe, many states including our nation’s capital, performed abortions on demand for any reason through all trimesters.
And now Joe Biden really wants to champion that as his primary platform for 2024?
Which leads me to question...does Joe even know Roe?
In one day, Roe forcibly struck down every law in the country that protected babies in the womb and disregarded the will of every American, opting instead to put unelected judges’ thumbs on the scales of life. In Doe v. Bolton, decided on the same day, the Supreme Court defined a health exception for abortion to include virtually any reason— “physical, emotional, psychological, familial and the woman’s age—relevant to the wellbeing of the patient. All these factors may relate to health.” Together Doe and Roe morphed into a lax abortion law of the land that shaped our country for 50 years.
Despite its nationwide impact, many Americans never knew the true radical scope of the Roe decision. A Pew poll found that only about two-thirds of Americans overall and less than half of people under 30 knew that the infamous case had to do with abortion.
The corporate media have worked hard to keep the public in the dark, repeating a mantra that Roe only mandated a “right” to abortion in the earlier stages of pregnancy. In reality, Roe placed the responsibility of determining how late an abortion could happen, squarely in the surgical hands of the person profiting from it. As you can imagine, that disincentivized many abortionists from placing clear cut limits during pregnancy, no matter how late.
Even beyond our own borders, does Joe know that Roe made America a global outlier and pariah on human rights? Out of about 200 countries in the world, only a handful allow elective abortions for any reason after five months of pregnancy – and you guessed it, we’re one of them. We’re in the same category as half of the communist countries in the world, like human rights abusers China and North Korea. To this day, it is totally legal for “all-trimester” abortion centers to set up shop in places like Beverly Hills (though whether residents will tolerate it is a different question).
Does the president know that Roe allowed abortionists to carry out the procedure on minors without their parents knowing?
Although most parents want the right to consent to their child’s abortion, even in the bluest states, today only 27 states require parental consent for someone’s adolescent daughter to have an abortion. Abortion activists oftentimes will couple their no limits push on abortion with a demand that government strip parental consent and notification as well. In their own words, they refer to parents as barriers. When an Idaho teenager was taken 500 miles across state lines for an abortion by her adult “boyfriend” and his mother last November, made possible by the lax laws of Washington state, instead of condemning the kidnapping one prominent abortion blogger expressed sympathy for the “marginalized” abductors. The stripping of parental rights was commonplace under Roe. And it continues to gain traction post-Roe, as abortion activists keep it as a top goal.
Does Joe know that Roe created wild health exceptions for abortion facilities, diluting basic health and safety standards, even saying non-doctors could perform abortion surgery, despite hospitals feeling they weren’t qualified?
As one federal judge wrote prior to Roe’s reversal, “There are rules for most cases, and then there are rules for abortion cases.” Meaning, since Roe, abortion has been treated as an extra-special right with unique privileges – making it a herculean task to enact laws protecting not only babies but also pregnant women through all nine months.
This explains why it took over 30 years to stop Kermit Gosnell, an abortionist who was finally convicted of killing babies born alive as well as at least one woman in his filthy “house of horrors.” The abortion industry and politicians of both parties couldn’t be bothered to ensure that abortion facilities were inspected. Abortion in America experiences a level of protection from activists and Democrats that they never grant to other issues in the medical or political field. Despite women just like Cree Erwin, Tonya Reaves and Keisha Atkins losing their lives to legal abortions every single year.
Even the most biased polls can’t hide that most Americans, seven in ten support limits on abortion, with exceptions, around the first trimester. And now, despite the relentless negativity of the media, two major polls show the tide of public opinion turning to favor a reversal of Roe.
What I want the President to know about Roe, more than anything, is that 60 million children's lives were ended under Roe, that is equivalent to the entire population of South Africa. That is devastating.
Yet instead of putting forth a lifeline to serve mothers and save children affected by unplanned pregnancies, he pushes us to abortion drugs and surgeries.
We need a plan of hope, not a demand for all-trimester abortions.
Emily Erin Davis is vice president of communications at Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America
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