It’s the strangest thing: The same people who bleat incessantly about the “sanctity of the unborn” and the “right to life” seem to be the very ones who couldn’t care less about other Americans’ lives during this pandemic.
For decades, pro-choice folks have been bludgeoned with heated, sanctimonious rhetoric from the forced-birth, anti-choice, right-wing hordes about how devoted they are to ”saving” the “unborn.” It didn’t matter how patiently you explained to them that a fetus is not a human being, or that they really had absolutely no business imposing their religious views on others, or that if they examined their belief systems, they’d most likely discover a wealth of patriarchal and misogynistic conditioning lurking deep inside. Nope, they would just throw their “heartfelt feelings” toward those unborn babies right back in your face: “It’s a child not a choice,” they’d shout, and walk away with a smug expression, confident in their moral superiority.
In fact that’s the reason many, many Republicans vote the way they do: so they can pat themselves on the back about their supposed regard for human life, not like those baby-killing godless Democrats. They’re so much better and more decent people than we are, right?
If this pandemic has proved one thing beyond any doubt, it’s that these supposed “pro-lifers” are just about as hypocritical as human beings can possibly manage to be. So much that if I ever hear a right-winger claiming he’s “pro-life” again, I’m just going to tell him flat out: “NO, YOU’RE NOT.”
Anyone who was actually “pro-life” wouldn’t belong to a group of Americans who loudly and actively disdain efforts to protect others from infection by this novel coronavirus. Anyone who actually cared one iota about human lives wouldn’t attend a rally filled with others spewing their breath and spit in every direction, and cheering while a malignant idiot like Donald Trump (or any other Republican politician) tells them that social distancing and mask-wearing are infringements on their “freedom.”
For these people, the only “freedom” they want is the freedom to put other peoples’ lives at risk. That’s not “pro-life” behavior. It’s pro-death. It’s saying to others that “your life isn’t important enough to me” to wear a mask. It’s saying “I don’t give a rat’s ass about your life.” It means you have such little regard for life, you don’t care if your behavior puts someone in a hospital or kills them.
This is pretty basic stuff, and it hasn’t gone unnoticed by pro-choice organizations. NARAL put together a compendium of statements by Republican politicians criticizing protective measures against the pandemic, and juxtaposing those statements with their somber proclamations of fealty to the “life” of “the unborn.” In light of the pandemic, that compendium resembles nothing so much as a technical how-to manual of hypocrisy.
Amidst the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, anti-choice political leaders have made it crystal clear that they don’t value people’s lives. As NARAL has previously documented, self-styled“pro-life” politicians and pundits have largely ignored the threat of the virus and failed to work towards solutions that could protect public health – instead, choosing to capitalize on the crisis to attack abortion access.
Now, against experts’ recommendations, these so-called “pro-life” politicians and pundits have criticized and defied stay-at-home orders in states across the country. Their latest messaging on the COVID-19 crisis falls into six main themes:
●Prioritizing the Economy Over Public Safety
●Promoting/Attending Anti-Quarantine Protests
●Attacking Social Distancing Orders
●Attacking Health Authorities
●Discouraging / Not Wearing PPE
●Dismissing COVID Death Toll
If these anti-choice extremists truly valued people’s lives as they claim, they wouldn’t be telling them to put themselves in unsafe situations during a pandemic. There’s nothing“pro-life” about deliberately putting people’s health and safety at risk.
All of these politicians have one thing in common (besides being Republicans): None of them ever expected to have their “pro-life” pretensions actually put to the test. As it turned out, nearly every one of them proved to be a raging hypocrite. If anything, they’ve proved it’s actually the Democrats who are pro-life. We’re the ones who are actually trying to, you know, save lives.
So the next time you meet that sanctimonious blowhard wearing his “pro-life” sensibilities on his or her sleeve, ask them what political party they belong to. If they say “Republican,” you can laugh in their face and ask them if they have any more lies to sell.
Because that one is too stale to swallow anymore.
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