Not only are Democrats obsessed with abortion, but they are also engaging in misinformation about the policies they support. On display this week has not only been support for the Women's Health Protection Act (WHPA), but denials that it would all for abortion up until birth, as well as the Democratic Party's support for such extreme abortion policies.
During Wednesday's abortion hearing by the House Oversight Committee, Rep. David Cicilline (D-RI) made some curious remarks, as our friends at Twitchy highlighted, when he said the "notion that anyone is suggesting that abortion should happen up until the moment of birth is an absurdity and deeply offensive." That's what the WHPA allows for, though, which Rep. Cicilline voted for.
Rep. Dave Cicilline (D-RI): "The notion that anyone is suggesting that abortion should happen up until the moment of birth is an absurdity and deeply offensive."
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) July 13, 2022
The "Women's Health Protection Act," which Cicilline and every Dem except two voted for would've allowed that. pic.twitter.com/EA5FAShUXD
Townhall reached out to Rep. Cicilline's office for clarification on whether there are any legal restrictions or limits he supports on abortion, as well as there are circumstances in which he does not believe late-term abortions should be legal. His office was also asked if his remarks speak to anything about his support for the WHPA. There was no response by time of publication.
Not only would the WHPA codify Roe v. Wade, it would expand it. It would allow for legal abortions up until the moment of birth, paid for by taxpayer funds. All state pro-life laws would be nullified.
The Democratic Party as a whole doesn't support any legal limits on abortion. When Democratic candidates and elected officials are asked about if they draw any kind of line on a legal limit, they either don't answer the question, or clarify that they don't support any such limits.
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Recent polling from the Harvard CAPS/Harris found that just 10 percent of respondents hold this view.
Such remarks were not the end of such confusion from Democratic members. During Thursday's hearing by the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), who also serves as the chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, had eyebrow raising comments of his own.
Rep. Hakeem Jeffries repeatedly calls the Supreme Court "illegitimate" during rant against the pro-life movement. pic.twitter.com/jvRnIEcfS6
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) July 14, 2022
The congressman, no less than three times during his five minutes of allotted time, referred to the Supreme Court as "illegitimate."
Rep. Jeffries asked the Republican witness, Catherine Glenn Foster of Americans United for Life, if she thinks those who support abortion are "extreme." She responded by saying "anyone who would support abortion up to the baby's birthday is extreme."
The congressman attempted to mansplain to Foster by saying "I think what you've heard people within the pro-choice movement articulate is we support a woman's freedom to make her own reproductive health care decisions, that's not extreme, that's mainstream." He made no reference to Foster's point about abortion extremism that would support abortion so late.
"It's mainstream if you support the fact that this decision, reproductive decisions, should be between a woman and her doctor. We don't need Ted Cruz, or anyone else, involved in making that decision," he said, randomly throwing the pro-life Republican senator from Texas under the bus. "That's extreme, what you wanna bring about."
Despite how the Supreme Court merely returned the abortion decision back to the states, Rep. Jeffries claimed "it's extreme that you wanna criminalize abortion care throughout America."
Rep. Dan Bishop (R-NC), who sits on the committee and who spoke with Townhall, spoke to concerns that this will be a continued narrative of misleading pro-abortion comments from Democrats, which he think it will.
He called it "interesting" that "there's all these accusations, they use the word 'extremists' all the time for these things," also pointing to remarks from Rep. Lucy McBath (D-GA), who inaccurately claimed that women would not be able to treat miscarriages due to abortion laws. When it comes to these "utterly false" claims, Rep. Bishop offered "they do those things in order to try to project an idea that the other side is extreme, but they're extreme in and of themselves."
Democratic witnesses also felt compelled to lie or mislead about what the WHPA would entail.
Rep. Bishop began his line of questioning by correcting Rep. McBath's falsehoods about treating miscarriages, before questioning Professor Melissa Murray about her use of the term "absolute" in her testimony, asking "do you mean there should be no limits on it whatsoever, that it should be available until birth?" The professor clarified that she meant "fundamental rights should not be left to the democratic process," but did not say if she opposes legal abortion up until birth.
When Rep. Bishop also asked about her support for the WHPA, which she confirmed she supports, he pointed out that it allows for abortion up until birth, which she claimed was "a mischaracterization." The congressman later reaffirmed to Townhall that "its language allows for abortion at any time."
Murray's remarks got even more problematic from there, as she and Rep. Bishop continued to discuss the WHPA. "I don't believe that abortion care allows for abortion up until the moment of birth, that's not how this works," she claimed.
She went on to say that "when individual do choose a late-term abortion, it's usually because something tragic has happened in a pregnancy that was very much wanted." Such is an oft-repeated misnomer. Many such abortions take place for the same socioeconomic reasons a woman have earlier in pregnancy. She also accused the congressman of "using inflammatory language."
Rep. Bishop also asked Sarah Warbelow of the Human Rights Campaign, who likewise affirmed her support for the WHPA. She also repeatedly claimed that what the congressman was doing was a "mischaracterization" of the bill.
Thanks to Roe, the United States was one of seven nations which allowed for elective abortions until the moment of birth. The Dobbs decision overturning Roe allows states to decide their own abortion laws. It does not, as Foster said, ban abortion nationwide. There are a handful of states which don't have gestational limits, meaning abortion is legal until birth. States such as California, New York, and Illinois, are seeking to expand abortion even further.
Rep. Bishop also later offered that witnesses were trying to argue abortions up until birth wouldn't happen as "a practical matter," but he doubled down on how "the question is what the law allows for." He also reminded that "most Americans think that there should be limits in law on the ability," agreeing that the witnesses gave what amounted to "a misleading answer."
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), the committee's ranking member who will likely lead it as chairman if the GOP takes back control of the House, highlighted how the Left, "which controls the Democratic Party, are so, so pro-abortion that they're willing to do all kinds of things," which includes not only misleading about the WHPA and the party's position on abortions until nine months, but intimidating and harassing Supreme Court justices and committing violence and vandalism against pro-life pregnancy centers.
This includes a willingness to "not be accurate about what's in that legislation. When you're that radical pro-abortion, they're willing to do all kinds of things," Jordan offered.
In his opening remarks, Rep. Jordan read out a list of attacks against these centers, as proof of what Sen. Chuck Schumer in 2020 referred to as the "whirlwind" when he threatened Justice Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch from the steps of the Supreme Court if they did not vote as he wanted them to in an abortion case that year.
Rep. Bishop offered that what we see now from the Democrats is "wall to wall," and that it is so because it's not merely abortion policies where they're failing. "They've created utter chaos in every area of policy, most notably the economic life of the nation and all the people trying to pay for groceries and gas, that disastrous inflation that affects everyone and is at the top of most people's lists when they're polled about significant issues."
Despite how inflation is indeed a top issue for most Americans, as polls consistently show, Democrats have scheduled five abortion hearings from this Tuesday until next Tuesday.
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