On Monday, Donald Trump signed an executive order banning federal funding for overseas abortions – reinstating the so-called “Mexico City policy” originally created by Ronald Reagan. This is excellent news, and should be followed swiftly by ending federal funding for Planned Parenthood. Trump press secretary Sean Spicer bluntly stated, “He’s a pro-life president; he wants to stand up for all Americans, including the unborn.” We can certainly hope that Trump’s action on the Mexico City policy isn’t a one-off.
And it shouldn’t be. Because here’s the truth: more and more Americans are pro-life. As Guy Benson of Townhall.com points out, a new Marist poll shows that 83 percent of Americans agree with Trump’s actions here, that 52 percent of Americans want to limit abortion to rare cases, and that another 22 percent want to outlaw abortion after the first trimester. Under 40 percent of Americans think abortion is morally acceptable. And there is no gender gap on whether abortion is morally wrong, despite what the Women’s March organizers would have Americans believe.
So, what’s changed? Why are so many Americans now pro-life?
Because science.
Ultrasounds have made it impossible for Americans to deny any longer that abortion destroys a human life. Ultrasounds show the reality of fetal development; heartbeat by week six is an obvious marker.
Let’s play a game, leftists. It’s called: when is it okay to kill this baby? pic.twitter.com/Szb5YEAQpM
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) October 6, 2016
It’s no wonder that a reported 78 percent of pregnant women who see an ultrasound of their child say no to abortion. So, naturally, the left wants to put an end to ultrasounds. Planned Parenthood has fought 3D ultrasounds for years – the amazing technology that allows you to see your child’s face before birth. As Dr. L. Lacroix of Planned Parenthood recently stated, “Abortion is a hard enough thing for any woman to decide without the torture of seeing the baby on an ultrasound screen.”
Torture? How about reality?
But according to the pro-abortion left, reality must be ignored. Today, The Atlantic ran a bizarre piece by Moira Weigel titled, in Orwellian fashion, “How the Ultrasound Pushed the Idea That a Fetus Is a Person.” Which is somewhat like saying, “How the Microscope Pushed the Idea That Cells Exist,” or “How the Hubble Telescope Pushed the Idea That There Are Stars Outside Our Solar System,” or “How Human Eyes Pushed the Idea That The Atlantic Is Insane.” The fetus is a person. An ultrasound is just a piece of technology that allows you to see that fact.
The piece itself is even more galling. Weigel writes:
What is a fetal heartbeat? And why does it matter?….[Fetal heartbeat measures] are based on two assumptions: First, that an ultrasound image has an obvious meaning. Second, that any pregnant woman who sees an ultrasound will recognize this meaning. Science does not bear either assumption out.
Well, yes it does. Weigel’s science denial here is truly incredible. Having seen repeated ultrasounds of both my children, the fetal development is clear and undeniable. And it is nearly impossible to see such images without recognizing that a child exists in the womb, not some random clump of cells. She might talk to an OB/GYN or two before declaring ultrasounds vague and uninformative.
But Weigel goes even further, assuring readers that ultrasounds were primarily a form of warfare against women rather than a tool allowing doctors to identify problems with fetal development as early as possible:
After the war, army trained scientists and army funded laboratories demobilized the technology, turning away from the ocean, toward women’s bodies.…Ultrasound made it possible for the male doctor to evaluate the fetus without female interference.
The left’s war for abortion now takes no prisoners: science itself must be fought tooth and nail if women are to keep killing the babies in their wombs. It’s not going to work.