Unrestricted abortion may not be the top issue for the American woman, but it is the left’s top issue for her. The left has made unrestricted abortion the core principle of its policy platform for female voters.
Far from being inclusive, this vision excludes the millions of American women who oppose abortion for medical, ethical, religious or other reasons. It makes a mockery of the women and girls who have been forced into having abortions or have had abortion weaponized against them by perpetrators to conceal wrongdoing. In the eyes of right-to-abortion absolutists, reasonable minds may not disagree, and women who dissent are “extremists.”
On this point, Vice President Kamala Harris has been crystal clear: “I don’t think we should be making concessions when we’re talking about a fundamental freedom to make decisions about your own body,” the vice president said in an interview with NBC News when asked whether she would consider religious exemptions for abortion-related matters.
This hardened and severe position on a divisive issue obscures the fact that American women share significant interests in common beyond the scope of reproductive matters. This summer, women voters comprehensively ranked inflation — including rising costs of day-to-day necessities — as the most important issue in this election. The economy remains the top issue for all but the youngest female voters, who did not rank abortion as their top issue until Vice President Kamala Harris entered the race.
It is clear that the economy is the top concern for female voters — and the left is ignoring it. Other issues affecting the day-to-day lives of American women and their families include public safety, affordable childcare, and good education, to name only a few. These universal concerns belong front and center in any effective policy agenda for the American woman, but the left insists on furiously waving the abortion banner over her head, first and foremost.
Time is running out for the left’s insufferable demand that men, women, and children unanimously cheer for abortion as the ultimate expression of autonomy and choice (for everyone but the child, who never has her choice). The left knows their vision is weak and uninspiring, because they are now manufacturing new scares like “national pregnancy registry” and “banning IVF” — which no presidential candidate has proposed.
They are propagating lies to cover up the numerous ways they have broken trust with the American woman through policy failures and betrayals that affect her life, health and safety.
First, the unrestricted abortion agenda itself has failed and betrayed women. The pro-abortion left claims that the FDA’s decision to scrap basic safety guardrails for self-administered chemical abortion is actually a wonderful blessing for women’s healthcare. When these changes result in tragic, preventable deaths, American women who were failed by the left are misrepresented as victims of pro-life laws.
Pregnancy resource centers set a positive example nationwide of women serving women in order to preserve life and choice, but left-wing politicians like Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer have tried to undermine and discredit their work. Politicians who hinder the work of faith-based nonprofits to freely serve and support women in crisis without intervention from the state have no credibility on matters of “choice.”
Second, the left has failed and betrayed women through progressive “soft on crime” policies. Consider the liberal stronghold of Northern Virginia as a microcosm of this issue. The progressive commonwealth’s attorney for Fairfax County, Va., Steve Descano, has failed to prosecute sex crimes in timely fashion while cutting lenient deals for child molesters.
In 2022, Descano touted his pro-“choice” commitments by promising never to “prosecute a woman for making her own health care decisions,” which is rich coming from someone who could barely prosecute a rapist. Descano was also caught on tape rationalizing his soft-on-crime sentencing approach, saying: “Don’t listen to victims… They’re overly dramatic.” Left-wing prosecutors like Descano are actively sabotaging public safety for women and children.
Third, the left has failed and betrayed women by leaving America’s borders open. Right now, there are half a million convicted criminals illegally roaming the United States. The left has failed American women in border states who are forced to play hostess to an illegal immigration crisis against their will. It has failed women like 22-year-old Laken Riley and girls like 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray.
Bad policy hurts women and robs them of choice. The voices of compassionate, enlightened individuals and those who truly honor women must be heard at the ballot box on November 5.
Noelle Huizenga is the vice president of public policy & communications at National Religious Broadcasters, a 501(c)(3) organization that neither supports nor opposes any candidate for public office.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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