I know, I know. This headline may sound a bit strong, perhaps Democrats did not recognize Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam since he was not in blackface when he made his infamous radio show comments about infanticide. But, after President Donald J. Trump received backlash for rightfully characterizing Northam's remarks on what to do if a baby is born alive during an abortion at last night's "Make America Great Again Rally" in Wisconsin, perhaps somebody should remind Democrats that a sitting Governor in their party supports infanticide (other party members do, too).
Caroline Orr, an associate editor of ArcDigital, tweeted "Holy hell. Trump just told the crowd at his Wisconsin rally that after women give birth, the baby is 'wrapped in a blanket' and then 'the mother and the doctor decide whether to execute the baby.'"
This set off a media firestorm, replete with the usual characters accusing President Trump of spreading lies. CNN ran an article titled, "Trump offers incendiary falsehood on abortion at Wisconsin rally." Mother Jones wrote an article titled, "Trump Has a New Go-To Lie About Abortion, and It’s Horrific." The list from the media wrongfully slamming Trump could go on, and on. As for politicians, there is plenty of content there, too, but here is what Rep. Ilhan Omar had to say. She argued that President Trump would encourage violence with his words.
This is truly dangerous and sickening!
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) April 28, 2019
Is this deranged President suggesting parents and doctors are working together to commit infanticide?
We have seen religious fanatics bombing clinics and threatening women, this will fan the flame of violence.
Stop the misinformation. https://t.co/Ad2ysWpDh9
Well, here's what the President actually said. The quote is broken down into two parts.
"[Democrats] are aggressively pushing extreme late-term abortion, allowing children to be ripped from their mother's womb right up until the moment of birth. And just this week your Democrat governor, and by the way we have Scott Walker here. He's a great governor, he did a great job, he's a great governor. He's got kind of big future, but your Democrat governor here in Wisconsin shockingly stated that he will veto legislation that protects Wisconsin babies born alive."
Let's stop here for a second. President Trump is correct. As reported by Townhall yesterday, Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers' promised to veto legislation that would place further guarantees that a baby born alive during a botched abortion could not be killed. Gov. Evers said he believes there is already legislation that exists which would protect the baby.
via Townhall.com:
Meanwhile in Wisconsin, such legislation has not even come across Governor Tony Evers’ desk, though he has already vowed to veto it. Similarly to Governor Cooper, Governor Evers does not believe in the necessity of such a bill.
“I think those protections already exist,” Governor Evers said in an interview, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “We have all sorts of issues to deal with in the state of Wisconsin and to pass a bill that is redundant seems to be not a productive use of time. And clearly I ran on the belief — and I still believe — that women should be able to make choices about their health care. But this deals with a specific issue that's already been resolved.”
Now, here is the portion of the quote where most Democrats are having trouble. For whatever reason, they do not understand that President Trump is accurately attributing the following paraphrase to Gov. Ralph Northam. (we will look at Gov. Northam's quote shortly).
"The baby is born, the mother meets with the doctor, they take care of the baby, they wrap the baby beautifully, and then the doctor and the mother determine whether or not they will execute the baby. I don't think so. Incredible, no, It's incredible. Until this crazy man in Virginia said it, nobody even thought of that right? They didn't, wouldn't even think of that. Yeah late term, but this is where the baby is actually born and came out. It's there, it's wrapped and that's it so to protect us in life I called in Congress to immediately pass legislation prohibiting the extreme late-term abortion."
Wow. Pretty outrageous stuff from President Trump, right? Well, all the president is doing is relaying Gov. Northam's position. Earlier this year, radio host Julie Carey asked Gov. Northam about Democratic Fairfax County Delegate Kathy Tran's legislation proposing to make late-term abortion legal. Carey said Tran "was pressed by a Republican delegate about whether her bill would permit an abortion even as a woman is, essentially, dilating, ready to give birth. And she answered that it would permit an abortion at that stage of labor. Do you support her measure?"
Here is Northam's full response:
"You know, I wasn’t there, Julie, and I certainly can’t speak for Delegate Tran, but I would tell you — one, the first thing I would say is this is why decisions such as this should be made by [healthcare] providers, physicians, and the mothers and fathers that are involved. There are — you know when we talk about third-trimester abortions, these are done with the consent of, obviously, the mother, with the consent of the physicians, more than one physician by the way. And it’s done in cases where there may be severe deformities, there may be a fetus that’s non-viable. So in this particular example, if a mother is in labor, I can tell you exactly what would happen. 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 desired, and then a discussion would ensue between the physicians and the mother. So I think this was really blown out of proportion.' (emphasis added)
Only a willfully obtuse person or an absolute idiot would argue that President Trump's paraphrase did not accurately describe Gov. Ralph Northam's response. And considering that Delegate Tran admitted her bill would allow for the baby to be killed even as it is being born, President Trump is correct that there are Democrats advocating infanticide.