Beto O’Rourke reaffirmed the left’s stance on abortion at a townhall in Charleston, South Carolina, this week.
When asked by an audience member whether his life lacked value the day before his birth, Beto answered, “Of course I don’t think that.” However, he went on to say, “This is a decision that neither you, nor I, nor the United States government should be making. That’s a decision for the woman to make.”
This comes as no surprise to anyone who has followed the hard-left turn of the Democratic Party as of late. Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (D) made his infamous comments in support of infanticide not long after the state of New York lit up the Empire State Building pink following their passage of a bill that made abortion at nearly any stage of a pregnancy legal.
The right has long hammered the left on the immorality of abortion. The left has long hammered the right on the legality of abortion. In Alabama, this came to a head.
On the heels of a constitutional amendment that affirmed Alabama as a pro-state life, which passed with overwhelming support from voters on the 2018 midterm ballot, state legislators passed HB314, The Human Life Protection Act. Proponents of the bill hailed it as the country’s greatest chance to change the legality of abortion in the courts by using language that directly challenged the central legal questions of Roe v Wade.
The ensuing chaos throughout the country was hard to miss. From the mainstream news to the late-night comedy shows, Alabama was at the forefront of the most ferocious fight in America’s vicious culture war.
And we reveled in it.
We reveled in it because we understand the importance of the fight. We loved that we were the ones leading the fight. But most importantly, we reveled in it because of our understanding that being pro-life means standing up for those who cannot stand up for themselves, the noblest of causes.
But, unlike those on the left who say what they believe unapologetically, the right has a history of lacking this moral clarity. And we rarely recognize that.
Speaking on Yellowhammer News’ “Guerrilla Politics” with WVNN’s Dale Jackson in May, Speaker of the Alabama House Mac McCutcheon shared that the legislature was considering adding exceptions to the abortion bill, most notably in cases of rape or incest, in future sessions.
The question for those of us that claim to be pro-life is this: Does a human life have inherently less value based on the way in which it is conceived?
If the answer is no, then why would any pro-lifer allow for pro-life legislation to include any exceptions for abortions, regardless of what they may be? If we refuse to protect a life that comes from rape, then we admit that their humanity is less than ours. How dehumanizing to individuals who were born out of those circumstances.
Are individuals that are the result of unplanned pregnancies any less human than those born out of planned pregnancies? Why not rank our humanity based solely on our manner of conception? Because if we do not affirm every single life to be valuable and worth saving regardless of the manner of conception, then pro-life has come to be the same as pro-choice, only with more stipulations.
If those of us on the right want to continue to attack Beto O’Rourke and his Democratic colleagues for their stances on abortion, then maybe we should first try to find the moral clarity that those on the left already have.
Will Hampson is a graduate of Alabama A&M University. He is the host of Will Hampson Weekends on WVNN in Huntsville every Saturday at 1:00 p.m.
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