On Abortion, Democrats Suddenly on Wrong Side

New York’s new law permitting abortions up to the moment of birth caused a “dramatic shift” in attitudes toward the procedure. Respondents were just as likely to identify as pro-life as pro-choice, 47 percent each, according to a new Marist poll.

Coming right on the heels of the New York law, Democratic Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam promoted a similar provision in his own state, explaining that if a child is born alive during the procedure, a physician would make the infant comfortable before deciding what to do with him.

Leading the shift to pro-life were Democrats and young people. Marist has conducted polls on abortion attitudes for more than a decade, and this is the first time since 2009 that those identifying themselves as pro-life were equal to or greater than those on the other side of the issue.

“The recent legal changes to late-term abortion and the debate which followed have not gone unnoticed by the general public,” said Barbara Carvalho, director of the Marist poll.

“In just one month, there has been a significant increase in the proportion of Americans who see themselves as pro-life and an equally notable decline in those who describe themselves as pro-choice.”

Monday’s Senate vote on the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, introduced by Nebraska Republican Sen. Ben Sasse, indicates that Democrats hadn’t yet learned of the Marist poll results. He gave Democrats fair warning.

“A lot of Senators spend a lot of time telling people how they fight for the little guy. Well, here’s the chance for them to prove it,” Sasse’s press office tweeted on Valentine’s Day. “We’re going to have a vote on the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act on Monday, February 25.”

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., described the measure as “a straightforward piece of legislation to protect newborn babies,” according to The Washington Post.

Democrats, he added, “seem to be suggesting that newborn babies’ right to life may be contingent on the circumstances surrounding their birth.”

Only Three Democrats — Sens. Robert Casey of Pennsylvania, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, and Doug Jones of Alabama, joined their Republican colleagues in approving the measure.

Pro-choice GOP Sen. Susan Collins of Maine could apparently distinguish abortion from infanticide — and voted for the bill. Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, the chamber’s only other pro-choice Republican, didn’t vote.

Every announced 2020 Democratic presidential candidate voted against the measure, a decision that won’t help them next year.

And the arguments against the bill were over the top.

“[Sen. Tina] Smith [D-Minn.] says the born-alive bill ‘forces physicians to provide inappropriate medical treatment,’” reported National Review’s Alexandra DeSanctis. “Read the text of the bill. Literally all it does is require that doctors don’t allow living infants to die simply because they were meant to be aborted.”

DeSanctis continued, “It is absolutely mind-boggling to me to listen to Senate Democrats stand on the floor and say with a straight face that a bill requiring medical care for newborn infants is an attack on women’s health care and rights. Is letting an infant die ‘women’s health care’?”

Planned Parenthood Federation of America got in its licks also, the Post reported.

“We must call out today’s vote for what it is: a direct attack on women’s health and rights,” Leana Wen, the abortion giant’s president said in a statement. “This legislation is based on lies and a misinformation campaign, aimed at shaming women and criminalizing doctors for a practice that doesn’t exist in medicine or reality.”

DeSenctis reported that “[Sen. Mazie] Hirono [D-Hi.] says the bill would force doctors ‘to provide care that is unnecessary or even harmful to patients.’ But the bill only requires that newborns delivered in the context of abortion receive ‘the same degree’ of care as ‘any other child born alive at the same gestational age.’”

The measure failed to reach the 60 votes required to proceed, gaining 53 in favor and 44 opposed.

A lot of those Democratic senators who argued so passionately against a bill making infanticide illegal are going to wish they’d read the Marist poll results first. But the poll’s respondents who had a change of heart haven’t been paying attention to what’s been going on around them.

In June 2015 the European Centre for Law & Justice published a report on late term abortion and infanticide in Europe, which offered eyewitness accounts from nurses describing how babies born alive during an abortion were either killed or left to die.

And if New York and Virginia are any indication, it’s coming to a clinic near you.

Michael Dorstewitz is a retired lawyer and has been a frequent contributor to BizPac Review and Liberty Unyielding. He’s also a former U.S. Merchant Marine officer and an enthusiastic Second Amendment supporter, who can often be found honing his skills at the range. To read more of his reports - Click Here.