The Hypocrisy of the "Pro-Life, Anti-Abortion" Movement

White "pro-life" teens harass a Native American military veteran. 

For the record, I am not pro-abortion and think abortions should be medically safe and rare.  However, I also believe that if one is going to oppose abortion in all cases, you need to be consistent and be "pro-life" across the spectrum of ages, races, faiths and economic circumstances.  Sadly, A video of Catholic teenagers wearing MAGA hats at the "March for Life" in Washington, DC, has gone viral and is thankfully helping to focus a spotlight on the hypocrisy of many anti-abortion fanatics. In the video, a group of white youths are harassing a Native American military veteran and demonstrating that far too many lives mean nothing to the anti-abortion crowd.  Indeed, once one has passed out of the birth canal, all concerns of life seemingly nearly vanish.  The same people avidly support the GOP war against programs for the poor, the sick, the homeless and, of course, support Trump's border wall.  If one is non-white, an immigrant, non-Christian, or gay, forget it.  Your life means absolutely nothing to these anti-abortion fanatics who would happily watch you die in the gutter. Their hypocrisy is literally off the charts.  The good news is that the alliance these extremist have struck with Donald Trump (perhaps the most immoral man in America) is making more and more people open their eyes to the ugliness and hypocrisy of so many of these "pro-lifers."   Here are highlights from a piece in the Washington Post:

A viral video of a group of Kentucky teens in “Make America Great Again” hats taunting a Native American veteran on Friday has heaped fuel on a long-running, intense argument among abortion opponents as to whether the close affiliation of many antiabortion leaders with President Trump since he took office has led to moral decay that harms the movement.

The video, which began to spread Saturday morning, showed a throng of young, mostly white teenage boys, several wearing the caps, closely surrounding a 64-year-old man who was beating a drum as part of the Indigenous Peoples March happening near the Lincoln Memorial on Friday. 

A few of the young people chanted “Build that wall, build that wall,” the man said, adding that a teen, shown smirking at him in the video, was blocking him from moving.The students in the video had just come from the March for Life, the country’s largest antiabortion rally and march, which happens annually on the Mall, a few blocks east of the Lincoln Memorial.

In a statement Saturday, the Catholic high school and diocese some of the teens belong to issued a statement of apology to the man, Nathan Phillips, and to “Native Americans in general.” . . . . this incident also has tainted the entire witness of the March for Life and express our sincere apologies to all those who attended the March and those who support the pro-life movement.”

The event happened as abortion opponents in recent days debated the March for Life’s decision to feature a greeting from President Trump — this year and last year — as well as one by conservative commentator Ben Shapiro. Some abortion opponents say the March has become too partisan and too aligned with politically conservative figures, Trump in particular.

Antiabortion leaders' embrace of Trump has alarmed a wide range of Christian abortion opponents. They see Trump’s comments on race and immigration, his lying and crudeness as damaging to the “pro-life” label. Younger religious conservatives continue to place an extremely high priority on decreasing abortions but more and more talk of a “consistent life ethic” that sees issues such as health care, global warming and support for poor pregnant women as among those that should be under the “pro-life” umbrella.

Catholic ethicist and writer Charles Camosy wrote in The Post last month that the antiabortion movement — including the March for Life — is rolling back years of progress by becoming increasingly seen not as a broad-based human rights movement but as a “Republican or conservative constituency,” he wrote. . . . Indeed, the term has become so toxic that the group Students for Life refuses to say ‘pro-life’ when doing its activist work,” Camosy wrote.

The Friday incident happened less than a week after Trump made light of the 1890 Wounded Knee massacre of several hundred Lakota Indians by the U.S. Cavalry in a tweet that was meant to mock Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who Trump derisively calls “Pocahontas.”

The Catholic Diocese where the students are from tried to depict the boys behavior as an aberration, but it is not.  The Catholic Church remains vitriolically anti-gay, wants healthcare professionals to have the right to refuse to treat gays, and to block same sex couples from adopting.   Like so many of the anti-abortion advocates, some lives simply do not matter.  Thank you to these boys for making that reality obvious to all.