SEPTEMBER 1, 2020 BY GENE VEITH
One of the most moving moments in the Republican Convention was the speech by Sister Dede Byrne, a surgeon and army veteran of the War in Afghanistan, who joined the order of the Little Workers of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary.
Read her entire speech. Here is an excerpt:
Humility is at the foundation of our order, which makes it very difficult to talk about myself. But I can speak about my experience working for those fleeing war-torn and impoverished countries all around the world. Those refugees all share a common experience. They have all been marginalized, viewed as insignificant, powerless and voiceless. And while we tend to think of the marginalized as living beyond our borders, the truth is the largest marginalized group in the world can be found here in the United States. They are the unborn.
As Christians, we first met Jesus as a stirring embryo in the womb of an unwed mother and saw him born nine months later in the poverty of the cave. It is no coincidence that Jesus stood up for what was just and was ultimately crucified because what he said was not politically correct or fashionable. As followers of Christ, we are called to stand up for life against the politically correct or fashionable of today. We must fight against a legislative agenda that supports and even celebrates destroying life in the womb. Keep in mind, the laws we create define how we see our humanity. We must ask ourselves: What we are saying when we go into a womb and snuff out an innocent, powerless, voiceless life? As a physician, I can say without hesitation: Life begins at conception. While what I have to say may be difficult for some to hear, I am saying it because I am not just pro-life, I am pro-eternal life. I want all of us to end up in heaven together someday. Which brings me to why I am here today.
Donald Trump is the most pro-life president this nation has ever had, defending life at all stages. His belief in the sanctity of life transcends politics. President Trump will stand up against Biden-Harris, who are the most anti-life presidential ticket ever, even supporting the horrors of late-term abortion and infanticide. Because of his courage and conviction, President Trump has earned the support of America’s pro-life community. Moreover, he has a nationwide of religious standing behind him. You’ll find us here with our weapon of choice, the rosary. Thank you, Mr. President, we are all praying for you.
Also that night, Mike Pence said that Joe Biden “supports taxpayer funding of abortion right up to the moment of birth.”
These statements by the nun and the Vice President brought out the “fact-checkers,” who, despite their pretense of objectivity, showed how zealously biased they are. Fact-checkers for both the Washington Post and NBC insisted that Joe Biden does not support late-term abortion and infanticide and does not support “taxpayer funding of abortion right up to the moment of birth.”
Why? Because late-term abortions and abortion right up to the moment of birth are exceedingly rare. Post-viability abortions make up only 1% of the abortions in this country. Therefore, the fact-checkers’ reasoning goes, they are not worth considering. But 1% of all abortions comes to the killing of some 12,000 infants each year who could survive outside the womb! (Which, observes Ramesh Ponneru, is more than the 11,000 annual homicides from guns!)
But the dishonesty of the fact-checkers is breath-taking. The fact in question is not how frequent these kinds of abortion are, but whether or not Biden opposes them. As Alexandra Desanctis says,
The number of abortions that take place after 21 weeks’ gestation has nothing to do with whether abortion until birth is legal (it is), whether it takes place (it does), or, most pertinently, whether Biden favors placing restrictions of any kind on abortion, which he does not. . . .During the campaign, Biden has failed to articulate a single abortion restriction that he supports, which, in conjunction with his opposition to the Hyde amendment, makes him a supporter of taxpayer-funded abortion on demand until birth, just as Pence argued.
See also David Harsanyi’s discussion “‘Fact-checkers’ keep lying about Joe Biden’s Abortion Position.”
As Desanctis point out, only 20% of Americans believe in abortions during the third trimester. Yet, as Harsanyi observes, hardly any Democrats voted for a measure that would ban abortion after 20 weeks. No wonder candidates would like to gloss over such an unpopular position. But why would “fact-checkers” help them in their efforts?
In the meantime, if Biden thinks Sister Dede and Vice-President Pence are misrepresenting his position, he can simply explain what limitations on abortion he supports.
Photo: “Sister Dede Byrne speaks at the 2020 Republican National Convention,” Screenshot from YouTube via Catholic News Agency.