VIRGINIA (LifeSiteNews) – Governor Glenn Youngkin had a successful career as an investor, so it’s a bit puzzling why he would pour $1.4 million into an ad that told voters he opposes a ban on abortions and that he essentially wants to protect just three percent of babies from being killed in the womb.
The ad, from his Spirit of Virginia PAC, tells voters that it is “disinformation” that Republicans support banning abortion.
Using Planned Parenthood pink, the ad says there is “no ban” in the works from Virginia Republicans. Instead, the GOP wants “reasonable limits,” unlike the Democrats who support abortion through the moment of birth.
The format comes off less like a standard political ad and more like an MTV public service announcement, perhaps intending to appeal to center-left and younger voters. But will any voters be swayed from the Democratic Party’s abortion platform to that of Youngkin’s, which is hardly different?
Youngkin’s 15-week abortion ban proposal would save, at most, a few hundred babies from abortion. It also includes rape, incest and life of the mother exceptions, a loophole that can be exploited to include basically any abortion. Any baby we can save from being destroyed in the womb is a good step, of course, but his legislation leaves out at least 15,000 other babies.
Virginia’s 2020 abortion data shows that 0.6% of abortions occurred between 14 and 15 weeks and about the same between 16 and 17 weeks, according to Charlotte Lozier Institute’s analysis.
Another “0.9 percent (139 abortions) were performed between 18 and 20 weeks of gestation” and “[o]ne-hundred and eight abortions (0.7 percent) occurred at 21 weeks of gestation or later.”
The vast majority of abortions are committed when the baby is still in the first trimester of pregnancy – and none of those would be stopped under an exception-filled 15-week abortion “ban.” Ironically, Youngkin’s ad features audio of a baby’s heartbeat in utero as it claims that Republicans merely support “commonsense position” on prenatal murder. That “commonsense position” would allow the destruction of babies well after their heartbeats become detectable around six weeks of pregnancy.
The purpose of the ad appears to make the case that Republicans are actually fine with abortions. And their proposal reflects that, given it extends only the smallest of protections for innocent human life, while leaving broad exceptions.
But abortion is a moral issue, not a political one. Abortion is the direct killing of an innocent preborn baby – a whole, distinct, living human being – in the womb. It violates a human being’s fundamental right to life.
Gov. Youngkin has shown before he understands the seriousness of cultural issues and attacks on the family. He deserves credit for changing from a moderate, country club Republican into a socially conservative leader, at least on issues such as parental responsibilities when it comes to education and opposing the transgender agenda.
But he does not seem to understand that abortion is a black and white issue. There are those who oppose the direct, intentional killing of human life and those who are fine with babies being killed in the womb.
Under Youngkin’s proposal, babies could still be suffocated with chemical abortion drugs, induced to have heart attack abortions through saline injections or be torn apart in the womb.
Just a few hundred fewer babies would suffer destruction in the womb, and for what purpose? So he can possibly win over a few more votes?
The purpose of the ad appears to make the case that Republicans are actually fine with abortions.
Instead, Youngkin should make the moral case for why abortion should be illegal. He could spend millions on ads that explain how from the moment of conception, a new human being, with his or her own unique DNA, is created. This human being has never existed before, and contra the pro-abortion argument that the baby is a “parasite,” he is actually right where he is supposed to be in his mother’s womb.
As he did in his inaugural address, the governor could draw on those words from Virginia’s most famed statesman Thomas Jefferson – that “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
Some groups that oppose abortion have rallied around a 15-week prohibition as the politically correct approach. But it is not the morally correct approach. It is also totally out of touch with the pro-life base.
In his inaugural address, the governor alluded to Virginia’s complex history, as an “imperfect people,” presumably, because of the commonwealth’s support for slavery.
He should remember what he said in his speech and apply it to abortion. “At times we’ve failed to live up to our ideals. But we all want to do what is right and what is morally just even if we fall short.”
What is “right” and “morally just” is to not be Democrats-lite on abortion, but to protect all human beings from destruction in the womb.