Abortion at the center of her agenda: Kamala Harris will be the most radical abortion advocate in American political history
R. Albert Mohler, Jr.
August 23, 2024
The nation is still working through the massive political events of the last 48 hours or so, but it has become increasingly clear that the Democratic Party is coalescing around Vice President Kamala Harris as its 2024 presidential nominee. The entire effort looks remarkably orchestrated, and there are clear signs that the Harris campaign was ready to move as soon as President Joe Biden finally withdrew from the race. It all took place as an American version of a palace coup. Democratic leaders and their funders decided that the gig was up with Biden. The conspiracy to deny his loss of mental acuity was failing. It was time to pull the emergency switch and, as quick as two tweets, the Biden campaign was over and the Harris campaign was underway.
There will surely be some unexpected developments along the way, but the closing of the Democratic ranks around Harris has to be one of the most interesting political moves of our times. The Democrats have coalesced around a candidate who has giant liabilities and who, you may remember, started her campaign for the 2020 nomination only to exit the race without earning a single delegate. But, with the Democrats facing reality, they must have realized that there was no way around anointing Harris, given the fact that they have continuously bragged that she is the first African American and Asian American woman to serve as vice president. Once Biden endorsed her, the ball started rolling quickly. It would take something huge to deny her the 2024 nomination of the Democratic Party.
But there are massive questions that remain. Are the other major Democrats, mostly governors, who see themselves as future presidents, willing to see Harris lose the 2024 election and thus leave an open field for 2028? Time may tell.
In the meantime, Americans have to face the reality that Vice President Harris is the likely nominee. The Democrats will be led by a candidate considerably to the left of President Biden and one who will be the most pro-abortion presidential nominee in American history.
Shortly after the Dobbs decision reversing Roe was handed down by the Supreme Court, Biden appointed Harris to run point on the abortion issue for his administration. As the attorney general of California and as a U.S. senator, Harris was a stalwart defender of abortion. In the Senate, she pushed an abortion bill that was modeled after the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and would allow federal courts to review any state restrictions on abortion, a process known as preclearance. Harris went straight after the ability of the states to protect unborn life.
In July 2019, she went after Biden in a Democratic debate, accusing him of harming poor women through his historic support for the Hyde Amendment, which prevents most taxpayer monies from paying for abortions, asking, “Do you now say that you have evolved and regret that?” Faced with an ultimatum and determined to gain the nomination, Biden obediently evolved and repented of ever supporting the Hyde Amendment. Usually, that kind of confrontation (not to mention her own disastrous campaign) would have doomed Harris’ chance to be Biden’s running mate—but Biden asked her anyway.
As a senator, Harris had gone after Brett Kavanaugh on abortion rights in his confirmation hearings for the Supreme Court, all orchestrated for the television cameras. As Biden’s vice president, she affirmed the administration line that their goal, after Dobbs, was to codify Roe v. Wade by federal legislation. But that was never honest. There is no way that the Biden administration, now driven by abortion rights defenders, would ever stop at Roe. The current push is for legislating abortion rights without any restrictions at all. Any argument to the contrary is dishonest.
When it comes to Harris, the proof is the fact that when Margaret Brennan of CBS News’ Face the Nation asked her to offer any abortion restriction she would support, Harris had no answer. None. She didn’t even answer the question.
In March, the vice president made a major statement by touring a Planned Parenthood facility that performs abortions in Minnesota. That state, we should note, offers no real restrictions on abortion through all three trimesters. At the Planned Parenthood site, Harris said, “Right now, in our country, we are facing a very serious health crisis.” In her Orwellian doublespeak, she dared to speak of a death clinic for the unborn as an answer to “a very serious health crisis.” As the media celebrated, this was the first-ever visit of a president or a vice president to an abortion center. Harris is the most eager advocate of the killing of the unborn to run on a national ticket. Now, she intends to top the Democratic ticket.
The media are falling all over themselves to anoint Kamala Harris the next president of the United States. There are countless reasons to see a Harris presidency as a real threat. But the greatest threat of Kamala Harris and her candidacy may be a threat to future Americans in the womb. That needs to be understood quickly and urgently.
This article originally appeared at WORLD Opinions on July 23, 2024.
R. Albert Mohler, Jr.
I am always glad to hear from readers. Write me using the contact form. Follow regular updates on Twitter at @albertmohler.
Subscribe via email for daily Briefings and more (unsubscribe at any time).