Tipsheet

John Kennedy Gets Pro-Abortion Professor to Make Stunning Admission

In a Senate Budget Committee hearing on Wednesday, Louisiana GOP Sen. John Kennedy got a pro-abortion professor to admit that abortions end the lives of unborn children. 

In the hearing, Prof. Caitlin Myers, a professor of economics at Middlebury College, claimed that not allowing women to obtain abortions impacts the economy because it hinders a woman’s “ability to plan if and when to become mothers,” according to her testimony. Myers was invited to the hearing by Senate Democrats. 

Kennedy pressed Myers on her stance after she agreed that “reproductive justice is economic justice.”

“That’s not true for the baby, is it?” Kennedy said. 

“Well, first of all, I would refer to a fetus, not a baby,” she answered. 

“As an economist, I measure effects using data…I’m not here to talk about ethics, assignment of personhood, that’s not my role,” she added. 

“There’s no economic justice for the baby, because the baby’s dead. Right?” Kennedy retorted. 

“I don’t really know how to answer your question,” Myers responded. “I would refer to it as a fetus.” 

“Is the baby dead or alive?” 

“We’re referring to a fetus.” 

“Is the fetus dead or alive after an abortion?”

Myers paused.

“The fetus would be dead after an abortion,” she said.

“Do you support abortion up to the moment of birth?” Kennedy followed up.

“You know, I think that’s, just a really hard question to answer because that just doesn’t happen. You’re asking me about something that simply doesn’t happen,” Myers claimed. 

Kennedy continued pressing Myers on the issue, to which she said: “I’m here to talk about the economics of abortion.” 

“No, you’re here as an expert,” the Senator responded. 

“As a person, I have ambivalence about abortion. I will tell you as a person, I haven’t personally had an abortion….as a person, looking at the evidence around me and understanding how complex the decisions are that people face, I’m just simply uncomfortable thinking that there’s a simple answer that applies to everyone. I trust women and their healthcare providers,” Myers said. 

Another witness, Dr. Leilah Zahedi-Spung, told Kennedy that he was using “inflammatory language to talk about a medical procedure.”

She further claimed that Kennedy was erasing the grief and the trauma that her patients endure following an abortion.

"Today, our federal government is that voice in the ear of every woman with an unplanned pregnancy...When it comes to moms of unplanned pregnancies in America, their message is clear: you can’t do it. Their efforts now go to pushing abortion as our primary choice. Instead of incentivizing a pathway to a future for our families, our government now implies that we are doing the country a favor by getting rid of our child. This is what Democrats demand today, to use abortion to fix our economy on the backs of us, moms and our children. But it won’t fix anything," Emily Erin Davis, the vice president of communications at Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America said of the hearing.

This week, Townhall covered how Democrat California Gov. Gavin Newsom said that he believes babies that are about to be born should be aborted if a woman and her doctor decide on it. 

“I think we’ve established that firmly in the context of what states are doing, like California, where we established a constitutional right to access abortion. At the end of the day, I think that’s a determination between women and their doctors. As it relates to the issue in California, I think we established that firmly in the state constitution. As it relates to getting into the debate around late-term abortion, that’s a complete canard,” he claimed.

Newsom said something similar last fall, which Townhall also covered.

And, last year, Townhall reported how former White House press secretary Jen Psaki claimed that “No on supports abortion up until birth.” Her statement came during the first GOP presidential debate when the candidates disagreed over abortion. However, many Democrats have gone on-the-record to express their support for abortions up until the moment the child is about to be born, including Virginia’s former Democrat Gov. Ralph Northam.