Liberals love Europe. They think the continent is better than America, and they apologize for us lowly hoi polloi every chance they get.
Take Barack Obama. Back in 2009, a few months after he took office, he jetted off to France to say he was sorry for the United States. “There have been times where America’s shown arrogance and been dismissive, even derisive” toward Europe, he said.
And Democrats often cite Europe as the ideal for abortion law. Of course, the mainstream media follows suit, claiming Republicans want to send women back into the alleys with coat hangers, unlike the leftist continentals.
So it’s no surprise about the reaction to the North Carolina legislature’s override of the governor’s veto of a bill to ban most abortions after 12 weeks,
“North Carolinians now understand that Republicans are unified in their assault on women’s reproductive freedom and we are energized to fight back on this and other critical issues,” said Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, according to CNN.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre in a statement called the law a “dangerous bill that is out of touch with the majority of North Carolinians and will make it even more difficult for women to get the reproductive health care they need.”
But here’s the thing: North Carolina is now far more aligned with Europe than it is with, say, China or North Korea. European countries are far, far more restrictive than many states in the U.S.
“The United States is one of only seven nations in the world that permits nontherapeutic or elective abortion-on-demand after the 20th week of gestation,” Mississippi lawmakers wrote when defending a ban on most abortions after the first 15 weeks of pregnancy.
“In fact, fully 75% of all nations do not permit abortion after 12 weeks gestation, except (in most instances) to save the life and to preserve the physical health of the mother,” they wrote.
Most of Europe cuts off elective abortion at 10-12 weeks. Germany and Belgium go to 14 weeks for elective abortions. After that period, many countries require one or two doctors to agree it’s necessary. And some countries allow later abortions for severe birth defects or abnormalities.
“The United States finds itself in the company of China and North Korea as some of the only countries that permit elective abortions after 20 weeks gestation,” Mississippi officials wrote, defending their law. “That is not progress. The time has come to recognize as much.”
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For the record, no less than the liberal Washington Post’s vaunted “fact-checkers” ruled in 2017 that “the data back up the claim” that “the U.S. is one of only seven countries that allow elective abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy,” the Catholic News Agency (CNA) wrote in 2021.
The other six countries: China, North Korea, Vietnam, Canada, Singapore, and the Netherlands.
A study released by the Charlotte Lozier Institute in July “found that 47 out of 50 European countries, independent states, and regions analyzed either do not allow elective abortion or limit elective abortion to 15 weeks or earlier,” the CNA wrote. Just three permit elective abortions past 15 weeks, the restriction sought by Mississippi.
“No European nation allows elective abortion through all nine months of pregnancy, as is effectively permitted in several U.S. states, and America is one of only a small handful of nations, along with China and North Korea, to permit any sort of late-term elective abortion,” concluded the report’s author, Angelina B. Nguyen.
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
Joseph Curl has covered politics for 35 years, including 12 years as White House correspondent for a national newspaper. He was also the a.m. editor of the Drudge Report for four years. Send tips to [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @josephcurl.