Media figures regularly try to label the Republican Party and the pro-life movement as “hypocrites,” because, they claim, while pro-lifers question abortion, they are not Really pro-life because of its position on the issue [insert other cause here].
At the moment, these brackets are filled by “coronavirus”.
Many in the media are accusing President Trump and Republican Party leaders of pressuring states to reopen, risking lives to the pandemic. In their response, columnists from New York Times down Washington Post recently declared that Republicans are no longer “pro-life” — and went so far as to say they are “the party of death.” Other outlets and Twitter figures have expanded on that, calling the entire pro-life movement “pro-death.” With their arguments, the media has also exposed something else: a double standard when it comes to life.
“You’re not really pro-life” is a tired argument against the pro-life movement. Last summer, the media withdrawn comments accusing pro-lifers of remaining hushed about the plight of migrant children after pro-life leaders delivered supplies to the border. In May 2019, a writer challenged pro-lifers to say they had “personally” helped mothers in need. The responses came from Americans who house single mothers, adopt children, counsel women and support pregnancy centers.
The pro-life movement calls itself pro-life because it recognizes the inherent dignity and worth of a human person from the moment of conception. Abortion is the greatest violation of that dignity—of human life today—because it deliberately destroys millions of innocent lives each year. For this reason, the pro-life movement is especially inspired to give a voice to the unborn.
The media is right: To be consistent, Republicans and pro-lifers who question abortion should take every precaution to ensure that human life is not needlessly endangered or treated as disposable during a pandemic.
Likewise, to be consistent, the media should apply the same standards to Democrats and abortion rights supporters as they do to Republicans and pro-life supporters – or abandon their current argument.
Imagine a role reversal: Newspaper headlines could accuse Democrats of not being truly “pro-choice” because they don’t support choice. [insert other issue here – from guns to school choice]. And if the media believed their argument that “pro-life” should encompass all life, they could write a story about how Democrats aren’t really “pro-life” because of the party’s unwavering support for abortion.
This is the media’s double standard: while they insist that the born are equal to the unborn in order to mock the pro-life movement, they never admit that the unborn are equal to the born.
Mainstream media outlets are not criticizing Democrats as the “party of death” for supporting unborn life, even as they support abortion during the coronavirus. Consider Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden tweet March 6, reading: “No life is worth losing to add a single point to the Dow Jones index.” Then there is New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who he said the day before that “for me, I say, the price of a human life – a human life is priceless, period.”
No, the media have other goals.
One New York Times opinion headline promised to explain “How Republicans Became the Party of Death” on April 24.
As an early example, columnist Timothy Egan pointed to Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, who declared that “there are more important things than life” in reference to reopening the economy in the wake of the coronavirus. Egan did not refer to other Republican state leaders, such as Gov. Mike DeWine of Ohio, “who has moved aggressively to shut down his state and has been cautious in lifting restrictions,” according to Washington Post report.
Also in Washington Postcolumnist Jennifer Rubin wrote opinion article published on May 6 under the headline: “At Least We Can Get Rid of the Pretend the Republican Party Is the ‘Pro-Life’ Party.”
“The sincerity of Republicans, their willingness to sacrifice American lives in a desperate attempt to fix the economy before Election Day, is stunning,” Rubin exclaimed.
Refinery29 headline from April 24 To read“There is nothing pro-life about letting people die from coronavirus.” Writer Natalie Gontcharova focused on protesters demanding the reopening of the US in various states.
“Many of the people who proclaim ‘pro-life’ values are the same ones who vote for politicians who have no interest in the lives of millions of Americans outside the womb,” she wrote. “It would be nice if these people would come clean and tell us that this isn’t about the sanctity of life for them — it’s about controlling and humiliating people whose lives they don’t value.”
The comments continued on Twitter.
On May 5, TV presenter Jawn Murray he tweeted“The Republican Party can no longer call itself ‘Pro Life!’”
“Red state governors across the country are reopening their states early because the GOP has no MONEY,” he insisted. “They are willing to sacrifice American lives to stimulate the economy! GOP = PDP (Pro-Death Pandemic)!”
WITH GQ magazine, correspondent Julia Ioffe persuaded May 12 “I still can’t understand why these statements like ‘all life matters, even the unborn’ and ‘some people will die’ are even made.”
New York Times columnist and CNN contributor Wajahat Ali he tweeted May 7: “Can the pro-life party now change its name to the pro-death party? I’m serious. ‘Kill grandma, save the world.'”
Republicans and Democrats, pro-lifers and pro-choices, Americans and the media should protect and value the life of Grandma. But they should do the same for the life of the granddaughter.
