While the leader of the free world (well, the traditional one, not the actual one who is German Chancellor Angela Merkel) is having an extremely public mental breakdown on our televisions and the Twitter machine, the top Republican in the House of Representatives is promulgating a dangerous lie that could result in the assassination of healthcare providers.
Maybe in response to Democrats’ pressure on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to take up the House-passed gun safety background check bills, Rep. Kevin McCarthy is tweeting about how the House Democrats are refusing to take up a dangerous and meaningless bill to “require doctors to provide the same level of medical care to a baby born after surviving an abortion as they would any other baby.”
It’s dangerous because it gives weight to the absolute lie that there are women who wait until a fetus is viable to have an optional abortion, and that there are doctors who will perform those abortions and let perfectly healthy “babies” die. That scenario simply does not exist in the real world. This is the scenario that exists:
Real women in medical crisis carrying fetuses that are not going to live, and caring medical providers assisting them: That’s reality. McCarthy is torturing these women, making their loss even more unbearable. Take it from them—the women whose own lives were at risk in these situations.
The timing of McCarthy’s push makes his aim crystal clear. He’s trying to distract from the truth that the Republican death cult is once again refusing to do even the minimum to prevent another mass slaughter of innocent people at the hands of a fanatic with an assault weapon. He’s trying to hold on to the Republicans’ pro-life mantle in the face of their willingness to sacrifice thousands of lives—actual living, breathing people of all ages—to the NRA. Oh, and give yet another fanatic with a gun the permission to hunt and kill abortion providers.
This is a powder keg onto which McCarthy is throwing gasoline.