Democrats' abortion agenda runs through battleground Pennsylvania
In just a few short months, swing state voters will maintain or sway the reins of power in Washington. One area worth considering is how Democratic politicians have drifted away from areas of compromise on abortion and become increasingly hostile toward pro-life advocates, from the top of the ticket to candidates representing the pivotal battleground state of Pennsylvania.
The animosity has been most evident with the party’s presidential nominee. In her role as the attorney general of California, Kamala Harris was a “proud” co-sponsor of an act that forced pregnancy resource centers to offer women information about local abortion facilities. The resource centers fought back and successfully challenged the law on free speech grounds.
Harris also used her attorney general position to punish an undercover journalist for publishing stomach-turning discussions with Planned Parenthood executives regarding the trafficking of body parts obtained through abortion procedures. She had the reporter’s home raided, and her office worked with Planned Parenthood on drafting legislation to make secretly recording conversations with healthcare providers a statewide crime.
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As a senator, Harris was critical of a district court judicial nominee due to his membership with a service-oriented fraternal order opposed to “a woman’s right to choose,” implying that such knowledge would disqualify him from taking a seat on the federal bench. She also introduced an act that would have ended protections for doctors who declined to perform abortions for reasons of conscience.
Harris opposed bills aiming to halt abortions performed after the gestational age when babies start to feel pain and those providing the same standard of care for survivors of botched abortion attempts as babies born prematurely. She also expressed resistance to a bipartisan amendment that prevented government funding of abortion.
Representative Summer Lee of Pennsylvania’s 12th Congressional District has since echoed Harris’ call for taxpayers to fund abortion-related costs, including travel expenses, and to eliminate protections for babies born alive after failed abortion attempts. A member of the House Pro-Choice Caucus, she has the goal of ensuring full abortion access at the federal level.
Lee’s agenda includes ending the filibuster and expanding the Supreme Court until justices who will restore and further broaden the Roe v. Wade decision have the majority. Unlike fellow Squad members Cori Bush and Jamaal Bowman, who were ousted in their primaries, Lee fended off a more moderate challenger in April and plans to continue enacting radical policies if she survives November’s general election.
Also seeking to retain a congressional seat, Bob Casey has expressed his approval of an act co-sponsored by Harris that prevented reasonable abortion restrictions, such as parental notice and admitting privilege laws. Pennsylvania’s senior senator has more gradually voted in line with Planned Parenthood’s legislative goals over time, and he now holds a 100% score with the organization’s action fund alongside his junior pro-abortion colleague, John Fetterman.
Despite claiming to be pro-life, Casey’s decision-making is a far cry from the values of his late father, who admirably took on the leading abortion organization in a case that produced the landmark Planned Parenthood v. Casey ruling. The senior senator is battling in a tough race this election cycle that will likely determine control of the upper chamber, and he has the endorsement of both Fetterman and the state’s governor.
A vice-presidential finalist for the Harris ticket, Josh Shapiro filed a lawsuit as attorney general that sought to end the religious exemption for a group of Catholic nuns from a contraceptive mandate that included paying for abortion-inducing drugs in employer health insurance plans. His office also turned a blind eye to legal and ethical concerns about gruesome fetal tissue research projects conducted at the University of Pittsburgh.
Last November, Shapiro’s administration created a complaint form for the public to submit anonymous reports regarding “deceptive conduct” against the state’s pregnancy resource centers. The move came after the governor ended a longstanding contract funding a program offering classes and essential items, including diapers and formula, to new parents in need.
Harris isn’t slowing down her desire to nationalize abortion on demand, even collaborating with Planned Parenthood to offer free abortions at this year’s Democratic National Convention. She holds the distinction of being the first vice president to visit an abortion clinic as part of her “Fight for Reproductive Freedoms” tour. She selected a clinic in a state with no restrictions on the procedure led by her running mate, Governor Tim Walz, who has been rightly criticized for repealing a Minnesota law against coercing women into abortions.
Reproductive rights are a cornerstone of the Harris-Walz campaign, which has the financial backing of the abortion industry and its well-funded proponents. With full-fledged support from leading Democrats in the Keystone State, abortion without negotiation is a rallying cry at the expense of the unborn and the advocates who give them a voice.
Ryan Navarro works as a mental health therapist in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His articles on the topic of abortion have appeared in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Federalist, National Review Online, and CNS News.
