Hillary Clinton: A Clear and One Percent Danger
It’s been two and a half years since Hillary Clinton lost the election. And based on her latest talking points, she still doesn’t have a single clue why. The same extremism that turned off voters in 2016 is back, reminding Americans what kind of country they’d have if the woman who made late-term abortion her closing argument for president had won.
It’s been two and a half years since Hillary Clinton lost the election. And based on her latest talking points, she still doesn’t have a single clue why. The same extremism that turned off voters in 2016 is back, reminding Americans what kind of country they’d have if the woman who made late-term abortion her closing argument for president had won.
This time, they aren’t squaring off on the debate stage — but Hillary Clinton is still managing to make one of the best cases for Donald Trump’s reelection. In a bitter response to his State of the Union address, the former first lady tweeted Monday that the president was lying about the severity of third-trimester abortions. “Only about 1% of abortions happen later in pregnancy,” she tweeted, “almost always because a woman’s health or life is at risk, or the pregnancy is no longer viable. Lying about this is dangerous, and a slap in the face to families who face heartbreaking situations.”
First things first. The number of children it affects has nothing to do with the morality of late-term abortion. If there were only two kids on a burning bus, people wouldn’t shrug and say, “Oh, the bus isn’t full. Don’t bother.” Right is right. It doesn’t have quotas, check the polls, or change with the times. If it’s your son or daughter in harm’s way, I guarantee you’d say that one life is worth saving.
Like Hillary, Democrats are fond of throwing around this one-percent statistic on late-term abortion (1.3 percent if they’re feeling generous). It’s a convenient number to use, since most people are trained to dismiss it as nothing. But in this case, that “one percent” represents 5,597 children a year. That’s double the number of casualties on 9/11. (Only this time, we’re attacking our own.) Imagine if someone said, just as casually, “America only lost 2,977 lives on September 11th. It’s just .001 of one percent.” It would be unthinkable — almost as unthinkable as a country passing laws that make it easier to kill perfectly-healthy babies. But unfortunately, that’s the culture abortion has created. In the 46 years of Roe, we’re talking about 257,462 late-term lives. How does “only one percent” sound now?
Clinton also trots out the old and tired “health of the mother” argument — one of the biggest myths of the entire debate. Dozens of abortionists have gone on record agreeing with pro-lifers that there’s almost no instance when doctors would have to kill a baby to save a mother’s life. In fact, many point out, aborting a fully-developed child is far more dangerous to the mom than delivering it. “If a woman with a serious illness… gets pregnant,” Dr. Don Sloan explains, “the abortion procedure may be as dangerous for her as going through the pregnancy… The idea of abortion to save the mother’s life is something that people cling to because it sounds noble and pure — but medically speaking, it probably doesn’t exist.”
“Viability of the pregnancy” is another grossly misused term. To one person, it could mean a fatal defect — to someone else, it’s a non-threatening disability like Down syndrome. Daniel Ritchie’s parents were told he wasn’t “viable” because he was missing both arms. Would we tell a soldier that, who comes home from Afghanistan with an amputated leg? You don’t deserve to live because you’re not our idea of “perfect?” Thank goodness Daniel’s parents didn’t listen. Today, he’s 34, married with two children, and has a vibrant ministry reminding people that their afflictions are for God’s glory. (Hear his powerful story on Fox below.)
As usual, Hillary tried to soften the gruesomeness of what she’s supporting by calling them “heartbreaking situations.” Funny, it didn’t seem all that heartbreaking to New York Democrats, who jumped to their feet and wildly clapped for the chance to make the killing more common. And it didn’t seem heartbreaking to Governor Andrew Cuomo (D) when he lit up the One World Trade Center to celebrate the kind of evil that toppled the building in the first place. Hillary is right about one thing, though. Lying about this is dangerous — especially to the political future of anyone who tries to make it a legitimate 2020 platform.
Until then, President Trump is content to be the face of opposition on late-term abortion, which is turning out to be one of the greatest areas of American consensus in all of my years in Washington. By fighting back publicly and (as the White House confirmed Tuesday) privately in his meeting with Governor Cuomo, he is setting this up to be a battle that could set the Democrats party back years.
Even in deep blue states, where leaders are stubbornly moving forward with the Left’s abortion agenda, voters are overwhelmingly resistant, which is causing the approval ratings of the leaders to take a nose dive. In the heart of New England, Rhode Island’s polling on a New York-type bill spells disaster for the Left. Three-quarters of the state is solidly against late-term abortion until the moment of birth. An even greater number — 92.8 percent — want them to back off the issue altogether. Up in Vermont, where a radical abortion measure just made its way out of a House committee, the public was furious to find out the fine print of the bill, which would basically be a get-out-of-jail-free card for monsters like Kermit Gosnell.
H.57, as the Washington Times explains, would forbid the persecution of “any individual” for performing or attempting an abortion. Even if that individual runs a dirty, cat-infested, third-world operation where hundreds of babies are born alive and then killed with scissors. If Gosnell were to get out of prison and hang up a shingle, said Vermont Right to Life’s director, “there’d be nothing we could do about it.” Outside the statehouse, “there’s a horror,” she says. “There’s a community feeling that ‘Wait a minute, what are we doing?’”
In Illinois, the debate is just as toxic. There, lawmakers just introduced a twist — cutting parents out of the abortion process altogether. In a country where we don’t let kids leave school without a permission slip, Illinois wants to let its teenage daughters have a deadly medical surgery without ever calling home. This, of course, is on top of Governor J.B. Pritzker’s (D) vow to make the Land of Lincoln the most radical abortion state in America. And while the competition is steep, he’s well on his way — smiling as Democrats introduce four of their own birth day abortion bills.
In the meantime, Hillary Clinton says she’s “not closing the door” on a 2020 run. But if she keeps up her gory agenda, who knows? Voters might close it for her.
Originally published here.
On the Border, Deal or No Deal?
No one wants to see another government shutdown — including President Trump. “There’s no reason for it,” he told reporters Wednesday afternoon. That may be especially true as he and the GOP close in on an immigration deal that could end a long and bitter standoff with Democrats.
Although he admitted Tuesday that he wasn’t thrilled with the broad strokes of the compromise, the president seems to be leaning more toward signing the bill and getting the border wall construction underway. At $1.3 billion, the funding for his barrier would fall well short of the $5.7 billion the president requested. Still, one White House aid joked, “We’re a long way from Pelosi’s $1.”
“It’s hard to say definitively whether or not the president is going to sign it until we know everything that’s in it,” Press Secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters. “The president isn’t fully happy, as he said yesterday, with everything that’s in the legislation. But there are some positive pieces of it.” While his decision on the bill isn’t final, there’s nothing up in the air about the wall. He’s moving forward. “At the end of the day,” Sanders said, “the president is going to build the wall.”
And he has “a few more tools in his toolbox” to do it, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) points out. That includes using his executive authority to shift money around from other areas to make up the difference. That was one of the reasons Senator Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) feels free to move the agreement forward. “He ought to feel free to use any [authority] he can legally use to enhance his efforts to secure the border.”
Although most conservative leaders aren’t exactly doing cartwheels over the agreement, a vote seems incredibly likely. If GOP leaders can work out the final details, the House would bring the deal to the floor as soon as Thursday evening. “I want to make sure we have enough time to thoroughly read the bill,” McCarthy said in a subtle jab at Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.). “Why would anybody say they are voting for something they have not read yet?”
At least on Twitter, President Trump seemed like the negotiations were coming to a close. “I want to thank all Republicans for the work you have done in dealing with the Radical Left on Border Security,” Mr. Trump tweeted. “Not an easy task, but the Wall is being built and will be a great achievement and contributor toward life and safety within our Country!”
Originally published here.
This is a publication of the Family Research Council. Tony Perkins’ Washington Update is written with the aid of FRC Action senior writers.
