Battle beneath the battle: Democrats’ appalling vote against life on House floor

OPINION:

The divisions in our country go far beyond conservative versus liberal or Republican versus Democrat. Not that the parties are unimportant. More on that in a minute.

It’s right versus wrong and whether we’ll be able to pass on America’s heritage of liberty and prosperity to our children and grandchildren.

One side — the progressive, Marxist left — wants to expand government to intrude into every human activity except one: sexuality. For that, they seek to eradicate all moral, cultural and legal restraints. They have cheapened marriage, warred against public decency laws, assailed conservative Christians, turned schools into indoctrination centers and made abortion an unholy sacrament.

The conservative side is supposed to be defending the moral order. Some are, although Republicans have their share of cultural termites. But as for Democrats? They’re all in.

How else to explain the votes this past week in the House of Representatives? If a picture is worth 1,000 words, some roll calls are worth 10,000.  

The “Born Alive” bill, which mandates medical care for babies who survive abortions, passed 220-210. All Republicans voted yes. All but one Democrat voted no. Let that sink in.

A couple of Democrats whined that the bill was unnecessary, contending that federal law already protects aborted babies born alive. Fine, but why not add another layer of protection?

Similarly, a resolution condemning recent attacks on churches and crisis pregnancy centers by domestic terrorists passed with all 219 Republicans voting yes. All but three Democrats voted no.

Since the Dobbs ruling overturning Roe v. Wade was leaked before its official release last June, vandals, arsonists and other thugs have attacked more than 104 Catholic churches and 78 crisis pregnancy centers.

You’d think that might bother all those self-professed Catholics or church-going Protestants. But abortion advocacy apparently leaves all other concerns in the dust, even if lawmakers say they “personally oppose” it.

The late writer Phil Nicolaides observed of one pro-abortion Catholic Democrat, “his religion is so private he won’t even impose it on himself.”

Some Democrats complained the resolution was inadequate because it didn’t also condemn attacks on abortion clinics. No, and it didn’t address the Russian invasion of Ukraine, either.

The Washington Post, which revealingly headlined a piece “House Republicans approve two antiabortion measures,” quoted a spokeswoman for NARAL Pro-Choice America who described crisis pregnancy facilities as “fake pregnancy centers” (because they help preserve life instead of killing babies).

The FBI is supposedly investigating some of the attacks but has made no arrests. Meanwhile, Attorney General Merrick Garland has formed a task force to prosecute crimes against “reproductive health providers, patients, and facilities.”

This reminds me of how officials used the COVID-19 pandemic to padlock churches and synagogues but kept the strip clubs and bars open as “essential” services.

Wielding the pro-abortion federal FACE Act, the Justice Department has arrested at least 68 peaceful, praying, pro-life protesters. The “enforcement” includes SWAT-style raids terrorizing at least one family in their home.

Well-intentioned people implore us to end all the division and just get along. Since the left will never stop, “peace” would require surrender.

One of the progressives’ favorite pursuits is hounding the Catholic Church to “get with the times” and relax its biblical view of sex and marriage. The late Joseph Sobran had an answer for that. He said, in effect: “I wouldn’t belong to any church that wasn’t at least 2,000 years behind the times.”

The left likes to charge that cultural conservatives are “obsessed with sex.” They fling this at anyone who hesitates to embrace their latest perversion. But they’re the ones who are obsessed.

As Sobran noted, of the seven deadly sins, “lust is only one, but this happens to be the one the modern world can’t stop thinking about. Nobody demands that the Church ‘change its outdated teachings against sloth.’”

The left has been promoting “free sex” since the French Revolution. Citizens obsessing over their own appetites (more pot, anyone?) are less likely to notice the chains growing around them, courtesy of an ever-helpful state that wants to displace all other human institutions. If it takes killing more babies and corrupting more children with drag queen story hours, then bring it.

This is no longer about conservative versus liberal. In starkest terms, it is Jerusalem and Bethlehem versus Sodom and Gomorrah.

But we know Who will prevail. And it’s not too late to join the winning side.

• Robert Knight is a columnist for The Washington Times. His book, “Crooked: What Really Happened in the 2020 Election and How to Stop the Fraud” (D. James Kennedy Ministries, September 2022), is available at his website, roberthknight.com, and at djkm.org/crooked.