WASHINGTON, D.C., March 26, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) – For the past week, Capitol Hill has been dominated by bitter debate over the inclusion of unrelated spending in legislation meant to provide economic relief to Americans in quarantine. Yet despite the heat Democrats have already taken on the issue, Vermont senator and Democrat presidential candidate Bernie Sanders doubled down Tuesday on expanding “access” to abortion-on-demand during the crisis.
“It is outrageous that right-wing politicians in states like Texas and Ohio are using this crisis to risk women’s health and safety by denying their right to abortion and other reproductive health care,” Sanders declared. “Instead, we should be expanding access with things like telemedicine.”
It is outrageous that right-wing politicians in states like Texas and Ohio are using this crisis to risk women's health and safety by denying their right to abortion and other reproductive health care. Instead, we should be expanding access with things like telemedicine.
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) March 24, 2020
Numerous states have ordered temporary suspensions of non-urgent medical procedures, including elective abortions. The abortion lobby has bitterly objected to not receiving an exemption, with Planned Parenthood and its allies filing a lawsuit over the matter in Texas.
Meanwhile, a multi-trillion-dollar bill meant to provide financial assistance to individuals and businesses that have been forced to stop working passed overwhelmingly in the Senate on Wednesday but faces uncertain prospects in the House of Representatives. The bill is full of unrelated expenditures for various public entities.
Sanders’ insistence on using the crisis to expand abortion is consistent with the absolutist pro-abortion platform he’s running on, which pledges direct taxpayer funding of abortion and contraception at home and abroad, and ban states from setting their own abortion policies, even on modest regulations such as ultrasound requirements or waiting periods.
Once voting began in the 2020 Democrat primary, Sanders temporarily became the frontrunner in the field, but before long fell back behind former Vice President Joe Biden. Sanders currently has 910 delegates to Biden’s 1,215 and trails behind Biden 36.4 percent to 55.8 percent in RealClearPolitics’ national polling average.