(Editor's Note: The following column does not constitute an endorsement of any political party or candidate on the part of Newsmax.)
Nearly 10 minutes of Wednesday night’s first Republican presidential debate were focused on abortion, indicating first of all the importance of the issue in the upcoming election.
And it should be a prominent issue, not only because this is the first presidential election since the Supreme Court reversed Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973), but also because, as several of the candidates pointed out, it's a profoundly moral issue and is even addressed by our Declaration of Independence.
Of the eight candidates on the stage last night, six (Gov. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., former U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, former South Carolina Governor and U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, Gov. Doug Burgum, R-N.D., Fmr. Gov. Asa Hutchinson, R-Ark., and Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C.) had something to say about it.
All were unapologetic about being anti-abortion.
Five of those six have been anti-abortion governors and have signed legislation prohibiting some or all abortion.
The sixth (Sen. Scott) has consistently voted for anti-abortion legislation.
That fact alone contradicts the misleading idea with which Martha McCallum, as a debate moderator, introduced the topic — namely, that abortion is a "losing issue."
A governor can sign anti-abortion legislation only when the people’s representatives send it to him or her.
Half the U.S. states have done so.
The candidates differed in their understanding of the role of the federal government in protecting the unborn.
Some of the candidates rightly pointed out that the U.S. Supreme Court did not take away a federal role for protecting the unborn. President Trump — who has accomplished more for the unborn than anyone — has also correctly made that clear on other occasions.
Indeed, Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization is clear: the issue is returned to the people and their elected representatives.
We the people elect representatives at every level of government: local, state, and federal.
Moreover, some of the key briefs in the Dobbs case were precisely from members of Congress, saying the same thing that the briefs from state lawmakers said: let us do our jobs, which is to legislate according to the will of the people, who clearly want more protections for the unborn, not less.
Indeed.
Even when Roe, and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, 505 U.S. 833 (1992),were in force, the Supreme Court, in Gonzales v. Carhart, 550 U.S. 124 (2007), held as constitutional, a federal ban on partial-birth abortion.
One reason federal protection is necessary is that, as Scott pointed out, we cannot let states kill babies until birth, and as Hutchinson pointed out, the Democrats have their federal bill to establish unrestricted abortion until birth as a nationwide policy.
This contradicts the will of the American people, as reflected, for instance, in the June 2022 Harvard-Harris poll showing that 72% of Americans support protecting the unborn after 15 weeks. Several of the candidates expressed support for that bill.
How realistic it is to achieve such protections was a matter of contention between Pence and Haley, the former saying a President must lead the way for change and the latter saying the votes aren’t there yet in Congress.
What every candidate should at least be able to commit to is that he or she would sign the most protective legislation that the people’s representatives in Congress will bring to his or her desk.
And in regard to that, several candidates pointed out what President Trump also has said repeatedly: the extremists on the abortion issue are the Democrats, not the Republicans.
If Republicans keep pointing out that extremism — whereby Democrat politicians refuse to protect healthy babies, carried by healthy mothers, and capable of surviving outside the womb – then we win.
But beyond any pro-life policy, and at the core of every pro-life policy, is the fact that we are the compassionate ones.
As several candidates pointed out, we know the personal pain of those facing difficult pregnancies, and we know the pain of the children themselves who are aborted.
Compassion requires protection from the violent procedure that dismembers children, scars moms, dads and families, and rips society apart.
And the more Republican candidates show that the anti-abortion position is the compassion ate stance, serving both the babies and their families, the more of a winning issue this will be.
Frank Pavone is one of the most prominent anti-abortion leaders globally. Read Frank Pavone Reports — More Here.
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