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‘Progressive Cancel Culture Is Dumb’: Ben Sasse Goes Off On San Francisco’s Travel Ban

   DailyWire.com
Ben Sasse questions Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) during his confirmation hearing
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Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE) slammed the city of San Francisco on Friday for blacklisting nearly two dozen states over pro-life legislation that those states have enacted.

“Progressive cancel culture is dumb,” Sasse said in a press release. “Most Nebraskans, like a whole bunch of Californians, are pro-life and want to reflect our pro-science, pro-woman, pro-baby beliefs with common-sense laws. Folks in San Francisco are free to disagree, but it’s childish to try to shut down a big cultural debate.”

“Pro-lifers aren’t out to silence the other side – we believe in persuasion,” he continued. “San Francisco progressives can throw a tantrum – Nebraskans will continue to act like grownups.”

Sasse’s remarks were in reference to an announcement by San Francisco Mayor London Breed and Supervisor Vallie Brown, who authored the ordinance, which not only restricts travel to the U.S. states that prohibit abortion prior to the viability of a fetus, but also declares the city’s decision to refrain from entering into any new contracts with companies that are headquartered in any of the blacklisted states, reported The Los Angeles Times. Accordingly, nearly half the states in America are included on the blacklist.

“Every day in this country, women’s reproductive rights are threatened, and we have to fight back. Just as we restricted spending with states that have laws that discriminate against LGBTQ people, we are standing up against states that put women’s health at risk and that are actively working to limit reproductive freedoms,” Breed said in a statement on Wednesday. “By limiting travel and contracting with certain states, we are sending a clear message to states that disregard the right to abortion.”

The aforementioned states include Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, West Virginia and Wisconsin. However, California has already blacklisted nine of those same states over their LGBTQ stance, according to The Times.

All of these 22 states have prohibited abortions after at least 24 weeks. Five of them have proposed or enacted legislation to ban abortion based on the presence of a heartbeat, which occurs at approximately six weeks.

“Although tax revenue from San Francisco alone may not be sufficient to encourage states to rethink their laws, if other cities and states follow San Francisco’s lead, the financial pressure might be enough to prompt policy changes,” Breed’s office continued in a statement.

Sasse has been a staunch defender of the sanctity of life. In February, the Nebraska senator introduced legislation that, if enacted, would require medical care and legal protections to infants who survived attempted abortions. Sasse’s bill failed largely along party lines, with only three Democrats – Sens. Bob Casey (D-PA), Joe Manchin (D-WV), and Doug Jones (D-AL) – voting for the anti-infanticide legislation.

“The Democrats are also out of step with our fundamental American conviction that all men are created equal – all men and women and babies,” Sasse said while on the Senate floor in June. “Instead, they are increasingly committed to the proposition that some people are less than human, and are therefore disposable.”

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