Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on what happens when politicians declare war on God:
The Left likes to describe the way status groupings such as class, race, and gender interconnect, constituting what they call intersectionality. In real life, no one uses such verbiage: it is confined to higher education and other left-wing ghettos. But it may have some utility in explaining why so many Democrats are sponsoring bills that result in the killing of innocent persons.
Women and African Americans, two segments of the population championed by Democrats, are now at risk, thanks to policies that Democrats are supporting. On June 3, the Democrat-controlled Illinois Senate voted to sustain the vote in the Democrat-controlled House allowing for an abortion bill that threatens to put the life of women in jeopardy, especially black women. It will be signed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker, a Democrat.
This bill as originally written would have put women at risk in three ways: (a) it removes regulations for abortion clinics, allowing them to be self-policing b) it eliminates all reporting requirements and regulations governing an investigation of maternal deaths due to abortion, which further puts women at risk and (c) it would have allowed people not trained as doctors to perform abortions, thus jeopardizing the life of a woman who suffers from complications. Although this last provision was removed shortly before passage, the bill’s original intent is clear.
If anyone thinks I am exaggerating the danger to women, consider what Dr. Matt Zban, an emergency room doctor from Charlotte, North Carolina told me via an email in April. He said that a doctor who performed an abortion at a nearby clinic was unable to help the woman’s condition—she was experiencing low blood pressure, vaginal bleeding and had a perforated uterus. He contacted a colleague of Dr. Zban’s, an Ob/Gyn specialist.
Fortunately, this abortion doctor referenced the woman to a physician who could help her, and the good news is that she was treated for her complications. But under the original Illinois statute, a midwife who performed an abortion and was presented with these kinds of issues would not have been required to seek help from a doctor. If the woman died, there would have been no investigation and no penalties for anyone connected to the abortion.
Wealthy white women seeking an abortion in Illinois would not have had to worry about some non-doctor aborting their child and placing them at risk—they would have the best service that money can buy. But what about indigent black women? We all know that they would be the most likely to be placed at risk.
An assisted-suicide bill, pushed by Democrats in New York, mandates that a patient suffering from “an incurable and irreversible illness” must have two witnesses to his request to be put down. There is more to this bill that is really disturbing.
One of the bill’s provisions says that family members need not be told of their loved one’s decision. So who qualifies as a witness? The bill explicitly permits one of them to be “a person entitled to a portion of the patient’s estate, or a person associated with the health care facility where the patient is receiving treatment.” That’s right—those who stand to profit from the sudden death option can act as a witness.
What’s driving these Democrats to promote abortion-on-demand, absent protections for the women’s life, and euthanasia for despondent patients, supported by those who may benefit from it?
One does not have to be religious to wonder whether the absence of God from public life has something to do with such madness. It is not hard to connect the dots.
On February 28, three persons appeared before the House Judiciary Committee and were sworn in before they gave their testimony. Democrat Rep. Steve Cohen asked them, “Do you swear or affirm under penalty of perjury that the testimony you’re about to give is true and correct, to the best of your knowledge, information and belief?”
Cohen intentionally left out the phrase, “So help me God.” When a Republican colleague took issue with this startling omission, he was quickly put in his place by the chairman of the committee, Rep. Jerry Nadler, a Democrat. Nadler said, “We do not have religious tests for office or for anything else, and we should let it go with that.”
The matter in question, however, had absolutely nothing to do with violating the Constitutional provision barring a religious test—that stipulation applies only to those seeking public office.
The bias against religion, especially our Judeo-Christian heritage, is so commonplace among Democrats these days that the aforementioned Illinois abortion bill removes conscience protection for healthcare personnel who oppose abortion. It also requires all private health insurance plans to cover abortions.
These two provisions are obviously aimed at Catholics, though not exclusively so. The law would punish Catholic doctors and nurses for not performing, or assisting in, an abortion, and would force Catholic schools and other non-profits to pay for an employee’s abortion.
This bill will be challenged in the courts, but the fact remains that these Democrats, having abandoned any fidelity to our religious heritage, are hell bent on promoting death to innocents. This is the most obscene illustration of what intersectionality means when applied to the liberal-left agenda.
