The Face of Evil

There’s a separation going on in our country, between good and evil. There’s less gray, more black and white, more clarity. I think this may be a trend that continues for some time.

It was a sad day for the state of New York this week. Nominally Catholic Governor Andrew Cuomo got his way; the state legislature voted to allow abortion on demand, pretty much unhindered up to natural birth.

NY Governor Andrew Cuomo
image from here

The bill was ironically called the Reproductive Health Act; it limits, or tries to eliminate, reproduction. It kills human life, rather than increasing the health of human life. And it endangers women by lowering health standards of service providers. Add to that, every late-term abortion endangers the woman more than natural birth or Cesarean would do.

The Governor spoke on the “victory”:

The Reproductive Health Act is a historic victory for New Yorkers and for our progressive values. In the face of a federal government intent on rolling back Roe v. Wade and women's reproductive rights, I promised that we would enact this critical legislation within the first 30 days of the new session—and we got it done.

Cuomo ordered landmarks including the spire at One World Trade Center, the Governor Mario M. Cuomo Bridge, the Kosciuszko Bridge, and the Alfred E. Smith Building in Albany to be lit up pink on Tuesday night as a celebration.

Can I add the irony here about the color pink being used, to honor feminism, which is only a thing if you believe in the two sexes (genders), which progressives say you’re not supposed to believe in. And they do it with a broad pink brushstroke, for all women, supposedly—as if it is a natural good for women to kill their babies.

Cuomo also said, “It's bittersweet. There is a bitterness because we shouldn't be here in the first place. We should not have a federal government that is trying to roll back women's rights,” and added, “This administration defies American evolution.”

This is how differently we think. There’s no sweetness; only bitterness. We shouldn’t be here in the first place; it ought to be self-evident that killing innocent offspring—particularly for the self-centered reason of avoiding inconvenient consequences following illicit sex, which is overwhelmingly the most common reason—is inhuman, ugly, savage, and evil.

He’s also wrong about rights. It is not, and never was, a right of women to kill their babies. It is not the right of humans to kill other humans except in self-defense, and as the lawful consequence of capital crimes. (Another irony: NY prohibits lethal injection of serial murderers, but celebrates it as a means of killing the unborn.)

The vast majority of Americans agree that women do not have the unfettered right to kill the unborn. The court that ruled in Roe v. Wade was incorrect. The decision was badly done. The court has been granted no constitutional power to make law. And the test cases of Roe and Doe, in the Roe v. Wade decision were based on lies; the evidence given was made up.

That decision has caused a third of a generation to die before birth.

And what does Cuomo mean by “American evolution”? He probably believes, and means, that there is “progress” of changing views toward agreement with his radical views. But that isn’t actually the case.

Results of a Marist poll came out last week, concerning American’s views on abortion, which they have been measuring for eleven years. The surprise is that “an overwhelming majority of Americans want to limit and restrict abortion and enact protection for children.” 75% overall hold this view. 96% of those who call themselves pro-life. And a surprising 61% of those who call themselves pro-choice. This desire for greater restrictions seems to coincide with improved ultrasound and other technologies that show the living child in the womb. Clearly this is a human life, with its own separate DNA, that has senses and can feel pain, and can be viable outside the womb at earlier stages than ever. To cling to the “it’s just a mass of cells” claim is anti-science.

Marist poll results page 3

Cuomo is also wrong about this being something this administration is inflicting coercively on the country. He is out of touch with the American people, because of the bubble he keeps himself in. If you’re looking at parties, 92% of Republicans, 60% of Democrats (way over half of his own party), and 78% of Independents believe abortion should be allowed AT MOST during the first trimester. 

Marist poll results page 2

Only a small percentage, about 15%, believe in Cuomo’s dastardly view of abortion on demand throughout pregnancy for any reason. In other words, he’s an extremist.

His claim of anything positive rings false when you look at the outcome. Back in 2001, we all thought of ourselves as New Yorkers, but I can’t abide this: 78% of abortions in that city are on performed on the 26% that are black. More black babies are killed through abortion than are born in NYC. If journalists called on him to defend those numbers while he’s rejoicing about raising them, we might all recognize the indefensible.

As for health, it’s ironic that nearly all the things Hermit Gosnell was prosecuted for—including the unclean circumstances and the lack of medical personnel in a clinic performing procedures—New York has now made legal. So far, the only thing they haven’t officially legalized is killing a baby after birth—except that the law did repeal protections for babies that survive abortion. In other words, they can be left to die even though born alive.

Republicans in the NY Senate pointed out that the changes moving abortion law from the penal code to the health code could mean that a woman who loses her preborn child as the result of an assault will have no means to prosecute her assailant for that loss.

Sadly, the day after the New York bill passed, Vermont announced it would push for a state constitutional amendment to recognize abortion as a “fundamental human right.” I don’t think they understand what that means. 

There’s worry that Roe v. Wade may be overturned with a more conservative court. I don’t know how likely that is. But that would not make abortion illegal; that would put the power to decide back in the hands of the states, where it was before the court made its untimely intervention. New York and Vermont would have no threat to their pro-baby-killing policy by the elimination of Roe v. Wade. The difference would come for states like Florida and Texas, where legislators are pushing for more restrictions on abortions, which would have been a state decision all along, except for Roe v. Wade. 

Florida recently legislated to disallow abortion after the fetal heartbeat is detected—which could happen between 6-8 weeks gestation. 

A similar fetal heartbeat law was rejected by a judge in Iowa Tuesday, claiming it was unconstitutional—evidence that it is states affirming life that have been deprived of their constitutional rights by the bad SCOTUS ruling.

The Republican Party of Texas has as a legislative priority this session, going further than ever before: 

Pass legislation to abolish abortion; including, but not limited to, enacting legislation that would ignore and refuse to enforce any and all federal statues, regulations, executive orders, and court rulings, which would deprive an unborn child of the right to life, as well as enacting life-saving legislation such as PreNDA or a “heartbeat bill.”

So it’s a two-pronged approach: total, and incremental progress. I haven’t identified a bill number yet, but I’m looking forward to seeing this debate play out. It’s about time a state asserted its Tenth Amendment rights, and the killing of babies might just be the issue to stand on.

Several states have limited abortion to 20 weeks, including Texas; twenty weeks is considered to be the time at which it is certain the baby in the womb can feel pain. Many states have also passed legislation against dismemberment abortion (Texas did this last legislative session), a procedure that crushes and breaks up the fetus, purportedly for ease of removal, but which is not only particularly horrendous to the fetus; the sharp broken bones endanger the woman.

As technology improves, fetuses on ultrasound can be seen trying to avoid a needle or instruments meant to kill them. Facial expressions can show fear. The more people who see the reality of the growing baby in the womb, the more they are likely to oppose abortion.

ultrasound image from here

In fact, the procedure of abortion, even when shown only with graphics, rather than actual imagery, is so violent that it persuades people to change their opinion about allowing it once they’ve seen the truth.

That means that a large majority of people are not basically evil. Only those who see the truth, know that this is an innocent human life, and yet promote killing that life anyway. As a sacrament to the worship of their evil.

We’re polarized because there must be no compromising with evil. We’re sifting ourselves, somewhat geographically, but philosophically everywhere, as we are faced with clearer choices between good and evil.

We learned this week, by looking at New York’s governor—and anyone celebrating with him—what the savage face of evil looks like.