Democrats’ extreme rhetoric and increasingly desperate attempts to leverage the federal government’s power to expand abortion reflect how Democrats “worship abortion,” a Republican U.S. senator said on Tuesday afternoon.
“I’m just struck with how we believe that life is sacred. We are building a culture of life. Everything I hear from the Left is elevating abortion, as if abortion is sacred,” Senator Steve Daines (R-Mont.), the founder of the Senate Pro-life Caucus, told “Washington Watch” host Tony Perkins. “It’s their religion, sadly.”
“They worship abortion,” Daines said of the Democrats. While Christians celebrate the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, which “ends a historic injustice of 63 million murdered babies,” abortion activists call for a season of “rage” targeting pro-life churches and pregnancy resource centers.
“I don’t think what you’re saying is an overstatement,” replied Perkins, president of the Family Research Council. “To them, this is a religion. To them, this is a sacrament.”
Numerous left-wing politicians have called abortion a positive good, using language that describes the taking of unborn life as a holy act:
- “The right to have an abortion is sacred,” said New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) on Friday;
- Failed 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton claimed, “Most Americans believe the decision to have a child is one of the most sacred decisions there is.” Her words remain noteworthy, as Juan Williams and other commentators now suggest “Hillary Clinton could rescue Democrats in the midterms”;
- “No right … is held more sacred, or is more carefully guarded than the right of every individual to the possession and control of his own person,” wrote the three liberal justices — Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan — in their dissent; and
- “The right to an abortion is non-negotiable. Reproductive freedom is sacred,” tweeted John Fetterman, the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania, last September.
Upon the announcement of the Dobbs decision, one North Carolina protester lamented, “Nothing is sacred.”
Democrats’ use of sacrilegious language to “sanctify” abortion is nothing new. In 2013, Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Wisc.) called a bill limiting abortion to the first 20 weeks of pregnancy “an abomination.” Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) similarly proclaimed that abortion is “sacred ground.”
The dark, occultic embrace of abortion dates back at least several decades. Exactly 30 years ago, feminist psychologist Ginette Paris wrote a book titled “The Sacrament of Abortion,” arguing that abortion is a sacrifice to the pagan goddess Artemis. Eight years ago, the Satanic Temple said abortion is part of its religion, later telling the FDA, “The Satanic Abortion Ritual is a sacrament which surrounds and includes the abortive act.” The very earliest document outside the Bible, known as “The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles” (or sometimes called by its Greek name, The Didache), taught, “There are two ways, one of life and one of death. … you shall not practice witchcraft; you shall not murder a child by abortion nor kill the child once it is born.”
Occasionally, self-professed Christians add to the confusion by endorsing abortion-on-demand from the pulpit. “Outlawing abortion is a sinful act that perpetuates male domination and the subjugation of women,” asserted an Episcopal Church clergyman.
But Christians have always upheld the biblical doctrine that all human life reflects the image of God. And some believers said the providential timing of the Dobbs decision underlined their belief in the holiness of life: “This announcement was released on the Feast of the Sacred Heart,” wrote Bill Thierfelder, president of Belmont Abbey College.
Rampant spiritual confusion proves “how dark the country has become, and how important it is that we’re fighting back as light,” said Daines.
Whose conception of holiness will prevail in the United States may hinge on the November midterm elections, as well as the 2024 presidential contest. “This fall, Roe is on the ballot,” declared President Joe Biden last Friday. Both sides need to possess the power to name justices to the High Court, as well as a sufficient Senate majority to confirm them.
“Remember, these victories came by narrow margins,” said Daines. Justice Brett Kavanaugh won confirmation by a 50-48 vote, while Amy Coney Barrett took her seat by a 52-48 margin. “Having a Republican president, a pro-life president, President Trump, we were able to put those three new justices on the bench, and last week demonstrates the gravity of these elections and the consequences of elections — and a wonderful victory. But now the fight only intensifies.”
“It’s going to get a lot tougher, not easier, as a result of what happened last week,” he said.
Ben Johnson is senior reporter and editor at The Washington Stand.
