The unrestrained ghastliness of lawmakers’ abortion pins

OPINION:

Political pins were all the rage among members of Congress at the State of the Union address, but one of the messages donned by at least two lawmakers drew widespread rebuke — and for good reason.

Sen. Edward Markey of Massachusetts and Rep. Madeleine Dean of Pennsylvania, both Democrats, gushed over their decision to wear abortion-themed pins during President Biden’s speech. 

While both seemingly thought the move was somehow brave or laudable, anyone with even a pinch of discernment understands the ghastliness of it all.

Just consider the pride with which these pins were promoted. Mr. Markey tweeted a photo of himself promoting the pin while he chillingly smiled and gave a jovial thumbs up. On the left breast of his jacket sat the simply designed pin, which included the word “abortion” in all caps. 

“I’m wearing my abortion pin from [Planned Parenthood] to tonight’s State of the Union address,” he proudly tweeted. “Abortion is essential healthcare and we need to codify this right.”

The most bizarre facet of the ordeal? The centerpiece of the “o” on the abortion pin was shaped like a heart, the traditional symbol of love. The lapel pin is just one of the strange pins Planned Parenthood pedals on its website, with the inclusion of the heart offering a hint of the demonic.

Ms. Dean tweeted an image of someone proudly affixing the pin to her jacket. Seemingly beaming, she offered a treatise of sorts on her decision to wear it. 

“I say the word, I wear the word,” she tweeted. “Abortion care is health care. Abortion care saves lives.”

Those frequently spouted lines are akin to a cult chant one is forced to utter repeatedly until some sort of nonsensical ideology finally takes hold. 

It’s a ritualistic and sacramental obsession that somehow devours the ability for common sense, sanity and reality to prevail. And these types of antics are only worsening in the post-Roe era.

These politicians are free to continually repeat the lies that abortion is “health care” and that “abortion care saves lives,” but anyone willing to stretch beyond the cultish rhetoric of today’s mass clinic complex knows abortion ends the heartbeat of an innocent human child.

And everyone is fully aware that, though there are heart-wrenching situations involving the health and lives of pregnant women, the vast majority of abortions don’t involve these complexities.

As much as Ms. Dean and others want to “say the word” and “wear the word,” there’s no amount of chanting that will ever realistically diminish the loss of life and tragedy abortion breeds.

In Mr. Markey’s case, there’s something else deeply distressing worth pondering. We’re just weeks out from the latest World Watch List report showing record Christian persecution across the globe. “Over the 30 years of the Open Doors World Watch List reporting, the global phenomenon of Christian persecution has grown alarmingly,” a statement warned.

Meanwhile, an earthquake killed more than 20,000 people this week in Turkey and Syria, creating an unimaginable catastrophe affecting nearly every societal arena. 

In Nigeria, Christians are being stoned and slaughtered. And in North Korea and China, dissidents and minority groups are reportedly shipped off to concentration camps. Then there’s the war in Ukraine, with citizens fighting for their freedoms against Russian President Vladimir Putin and his army of Russian aggressors. 

Throw in Afghanistan, a beleaguered nation America abruptly abandoned, and the collective situation is grim. And this only scratches the surface of the immense pain, suffering and horror affecting people across the globe.

It’s hard to imagine a privileged politician in the most powerful nation on earth having a prime opportunity to stand up for a cause and choosing, out of every potential option, to elevate … abortion. And not simply to lionize the issue, but to wear a lapel pin that includes a heart, pretending the systematic killing of innocent unborn children is somehow an act of love.

To Ms. Dean’s credit, she appeared to wear other pins on her jacket, though her dedicated tweet was all about her abortion pin. And it’s possible Mr. Markey, too, slapped on another message, though it doesn’t really matter because the full force of public effort was put behind touting abortion.

When the official Twitter account for the House Judiciary Committee retweeted Mr. Markey’s photo and abortion message and called it “disgusting,” the senator hit back with a telling message: “What’s disgusting is the GOP’s obsession with controlling people’s bodies.”

This “obsession,” of course, is with defending the innocent and, at the least, helping those who so callously approach the issue comprehend what abortion truly entails: snuffing out another life — a fully unique body inside a body.

Disagreeing about abortion is one thing. Being ignorant or unwilling to acknowledge what’s happening is another. Pray for these politicians to see the error of their ways and the true pain their embrace of these enduring lies perpetuates.

Billy Hallowell is a digital TV host and interviewer for Faithwire and CBN News and the co-host of CBN’s “Quick Start Podcast.” Hallowell is the author of four books, including “Playing with Fire: A Modern Investigation into Demons, Exorcism, and Ghosts,” and “The Armageddon Code: One Journalist’s Quest for End-Times Answers.”