Executing Truth

Going there with my next newspaper column:

It’s undeniably unwise to columnize abortion, but Trump, et ilk, have made it clear it’ll occupy prime space amongst the lies they’ll be spreading about Democrats. “Executing” newborns is how Trump put it at his recent “Rally the Uninquisitive” roadshow. By actual count the ten-thousandth, it’s his most loathsome lie yet. For fictive Trumpists interested in accuracy, let’s revisit the origin of this odious demagoguery. 

Yes, there are liberals who believe, in the extremely rare circumstances in which third-trimester abortions are medically indicated, the decision must be left to parents and their doctors. Not Donald Trump, not Franklin Graham, not Sean Hannity. Having shared many tough medical decisions with patients, I’m grateful they never included that, the most wrenching of all.  

The big lie began when former pediatric neurologist, Virginia Governor Ralph Northam’s answer to a question was leapt upon by rightwing screamers, convincing the dupable he advocated infanticide. (At his rally, Trump made hacking motions when saying “execution.”) The heartbreaking decision Northam described was a baby born so malformed that it would soon die. He gave a straightforward answer: it would be cuddled in a blanket while the parents resolved whether they wished the baby to receive life-support or kept comfortable while dying naturally. (As God intended?) Despite rightwing lies, he wasn’t referring to a failed abortion attempt, either.  

Some distant bystanders will argue the baby should be kept alive at all costs, until its inevitable death. More, one hopes, would apprehend the parents’ pain, feel sympathy and understanding if they chose to provide tender comfort as death approached. In turning such anguish into a heartless, deceitful, inflammatory theme of his horrifying rallies, Trump sank to a level of repulsiveness, disgraceful even for him. 

Maybe those at Trump’s rallies should be forgiven. Made terminally uninterested in pursuing truth, they attend to baste in his lies, without reflection, whatever the topic. Were they to make the tiniest effort to restore themselves with truth; had they the smallest sliver of empathy for people who don’t happen to be them, perhaps they’d reject his perfidy and be appalled by his confidence in deluding them, no matter how vile the lies. (“It was an attempted coup!!”) So, no: in fact, they shouldn’t be forgiven. Truth is obtainable, and everyone benefits when people care to discover it. Those who don’t, go to rallies.  

Though Trump’s lie wasn’t directly about abortion, it evoked it. In a perfect world, there’d be none; no pro-choice advocate disagrees. Nor do any fail to understand that making birth control and sex education available – not the abstinence-only kind – leads to a decline in the incidence; and that the greatest number of teen pregnancies and abortions occur where they’re unavailable. To anti-choice folks, it’s immaterial. Because sin, one assumes.  

The decision to undergo an abortion is manifestly difficult and painful. It’s also understandable, that, for religious reasons, some consider abortion murder at any stage, finding no distinction between a fertilized ovum and a full-term baby. Neither is it hard to understand the difficulty, for those who see a difference, in agreeing at what stage of pregnancy abortion ought to have restrictions. 

There’ll never be consensus, especially downwind from such a poisonous “president.” Nevertheless, those whose no-exception stance is religion-based must accept that they’re in America, where no single religious view takes precedence over another. Not yet, anyway. Anti-choice believers can console themselves in their certainty of heavenly entrée, and that those who perform and receive abortions will suffer eternal damnation. (The Bible is notably silent on the issue, however.) And, because it’s said God knows us before we’re born and has a plan for us all, they may take comfort in knowing the fetuses will be fine.  

Medical science tells us around a third of early conceptuses die in the womb, to be resorbed or expelled unnoticed; plus, there are countless miscarriages. And stillbirths. Accepting the religious argument for “no exceptions,” God must be participating in every one of those deaths. That challenges religious objections to abortion, about which, again, the Bible is silent. 

It ought to be acceptable, then, that abortion remains legal, safe, and rare. To that end, programs which further its rarity should be supported by everyone. So, because they’re pro-life, should services that aid the underprivileged, disadvantaged post-born.  

Donald Trump needs to stop lying. Those who believe him should be ashamed. Why? Read this. 

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