Democratic candidates have been running on abortion for years, and both President Joe Biden and now Vice President Kamala Harris have pledged to resurrect a more extreme version of Roe v. Wade if Democrats win the White House in November. But Harris is promising more than just unrestricted abortion on demand: she’s promising to make American Christians carry out and pay for abortions.
In an NBC News interview on last week, Harris was asked if she would consider “making concessions” on abortion if she were to win the White House in order to garner support from pro-abortion Republicans like Senators Lisa Murkowski (AK-R) and Susan Collins (ME-R). “What concessions would be on the table? Religious exemptions, for example; is that something that you would consider if the Republicans control Congress?” NBC’s Senior Washington Correspondent Hallie Jackson asked. Harris replied, “I don’t think we should be making concessions when we’re talking about a fundamental freedom to make decisions about your own body.”
When Jackson asked if Harris would consider religious exemptions as an “olive branch” extended to Murkowski or Collins, the vice president said that “a basic freedom has been taken from the women of America, the freedom to make decisions about their own body, and that cannot be negotiable, which is why we need to put back in the protections of Roe v. Wade, and that is it.”
Christian organizations were quick to react. In comments to The Washington Stand (TWS), Mary Szoch, Family Research Council’s director of the Center for Human Dignity, said that Harris “isn’t pro-choice; she is pro-abortion.” Szoch continued, “She wants to force everyone to perform abortions — even physicians who recognize that the killing of an innocent unborn child is murder and a grave sin — and she wants to force American taxpayers to pay for abortions.” She concluded, “This woman will do everything possible to increase the number of babies aborted in this country. No Christian can vote for her in good conscience.”
The Center for Baptist Leadership called Harris’s comments “chilling,” adding, “This means that all Christian hospitals, healthcare providers, businesses, etc., would be forced to provide/cover abortion if she got her way. It would be the end of the First Amendment and religious liberty as we know it.”
In comments to TWS, William Wolfe, the executive director of the Center for Baptist Leadership and a former Trump staffer, said, “In the final moments of her floundering campaign, Kamala Harris has decided to drop the mask and reveal her deep-seated hatred for the unborn and all American Christians. There are so many things wrong with her recent comments, both morally and legally, that it’s hard to know where to begin.”
“First, there is no ‘fundamental freedom’ to murder the unborn in the womb. Rather, the government is obligated, under God and the Constitution, to defend the lives of all American citizens, including the unborn,” Wolfe explained. He continued, “Second, her rejection of ‘religious exemptions’ when it comes to abortion would be the end of the First Amendment as we know it. She is openly admitting that, if elected, she would use the full force of the federal government to require Christian doctors to perform abortions against their conscience and religious beliefs.”
Wolfe called the agenda “nothing short of a satanic tyranny that flies in the face of everything America was founded on.” He added, “As a Baptist, this is particularly concerning, as we believe that religious liberty is foundational for free societies. She’s made her antipathy toward those who want to uphold the First Amendment and protect innocent life in America known. Now, we will see how Christians respond at the ballot box.”
CatholicVote, a conservative advocacy group, protested in a statement over social media, “Kamala Harris admits she would deny religious exemptions for abortions — forcing Christians to kill unborn children and seemingly doubling down on weaponizing the government to jail pro-lifers who pray outside abortion facilities.” The organization wondered, “Why would any Christian vote for her?”
Andrew T. Walker, professor of ethics and public theology at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, summarized, “Killing a pre-born child is a more fundamental right than religious liberty according to Vice President Harris.” Ben Domenech, editor-at-large for The Spectator, commented, “Forcing Catholic hospitals, which supply care to some of the most vulnerable populations, to perform abortions or shut their doors is literally the most vile thing a major party candidate has ever endorsed.”
Former President Donald Trump has repeatedly condemned Harris for her demonstrable animosity towards American Christians and pro-lifers. At the “11th Hour Faith Leaders Meeting” on last Monday, Trump insisted that Harris is “very destructive to Christianity and very destructive to evangelicals and to the Catholic Church.” He added, “She is your worst nightmare. Much worse, much worse than Biden, and he wasn’t so hot.”
Trump has previously called Harris “militantly hostile toward Americans of faith,” pointing out her record on such issues as abortion and the LGBT agenda, as well as her repeated prosecution — both in the White House and prior to becoming vice president — of pro-life Americans and her complicity in targeting American Catholics with the FBI.
Trump has pledged to “stop the Biden-Harris Administration’s weaponization of law enforcement against Americans of faith” and has said that “no longer will the DOJ and the FBI be allowed to target, persecute, or round up Christians or pro-life activists and throw them in jail for living out their religious beliefs.”
Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.
Chaplain (Colonel-Ret), U.S. Army
Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel
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