A Priority Adjustment Is Needed in Abortion Discussion

"I refuse to let my new granddaughter have to fight for the rights generations have fought for and won, rights that she should be guaranteed."

So said New York Gov. Kathy Hochul on the night of May 2, 2022. The draft opinion in the Mississippi abortion case (Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization) that would overturn Roe v. Wade at the Supreme Court had just been leaked, and this grandmother's response was to think about her newborn granddaughter in the context of abortion.

Dobbs became official that June, and within a week the pro-abortion Left was taking up the case of a 10-year-old girl in Ohio as a chief reason why the end of Roe was detrimental to the health and freedom of the women of the United States.

Once news broke, the case — the girl was taken from the Buckeye State to Indiana to have an abortion — quickly reached the White House and became a national rallying cry for advocates of abortion. "She was forced to have to travel out of the state to Indiana to seek to terminate the pregnancy and maybe save her life," then-President Biden said during White House remarks.

When the president of Planned Parenthood was asked about the case in an interview with Time, she saw it as just another example of "extremism" on the part of abortion opponents.

The pregnant child at the center of the case had been raped. Now there were two children whose lives demanded our attention. This is not every abortion case. This is not your typical scenario, thank goodness.

But instead, our hyper-partisan reflexes force us into resorting to talking points about abortion when faced with such an abhorrent situation. Consider Democratic Texas Senate candidate James Talarico:

"We talk about Texas women, but it's also Texas girls -- we see girls as young as 10 years old who need that abortion care, and they can't get it in Texas," he said during a recent CNN town hall. Had he simply made a general assertion about women's healthcare, he would be parroting a decades-long standard for his party. And yet, bringing up pregnant children as he did should make us all stop in our tracks.

The Houston Chronicle last year reported, citing Texas Health and Human Services Commission data, that "(a)t least 100 Texas children aged 17 and younger got abortions in other states during the first year after Texas banned the procedure, including six aged 11 and under." See, this is something Joe Biden and I can both get incensed about. Why are 10-year-olds getting pregnant? This should not be subject to a standard rhetorical tug-of-war over abortion in America. Something deeper needs to be fixed.

What most of our news, political and commentariat frenzies miss is that no one candidate or piece of legislation will remedy all that divides us on these most intimate issues.

It takes a family welcoming life with a healthy, joyful mindset for the fullness that man was made for. We won't always hit the ideal, but good stewardship demands we keep hope alive, even if it hasn't been our lived experience. It's possible!

And, at the very least, protecting 10-year-olds from sexual predators is our responsibility as adults in a democratic republic forever reliant on goodness and virtue to thrive. Our failure to protect them can never become a mere political talking point. That's a sign of a culture in grave moral peril.

The end of Roe gave us an opportunity to practice better politics. So far, we've woefully failed.

Around the same time as the birth of her granddaughter, Gov. Hochul also made clear — a position she has since reiterated — that she sees the Empire State as a Lady Liberty beckoning those wanting to get abortions. What if, instead, the Empire State were known as a safe haven for children in biological homes, in foster care, in adoptive forever homes? That's a model worth pursuing.

Kathryn Jean Lopez is senior fellow at the National Review Institute, editor-at-large of National Review magazine and author of the new book "A Year With the Mystics: Visionary Wisdom for Daily Living." She is also chair of Cardinal Dolan's pro-life commission in New York and is on the board of the University of Mary. She can be contacted at klopez@nationalreview.com.

Editor’s Note: Do you enjoy Townhall’s conservative reporting that takes on the radical Left and woke media? Support our work so that we can continue to bring you the truth.

Join Townhall VIP and use promo code FIGHT to receive 60% off your membership.