President Joe Biden promised in his inaugural address to be “a president for all Americans.” It’s a sentiment many are desperate to hear, as the pandemic and political unrest have kept Americans apart and divided these last 10 months.
This year, perhaps more than ever before, our nation needs to move beyond division. We must lock arms as we work toward protecting the inherent dignity of every human person. The unborn person is no exception and deserves equal protection under the law.
President Biden should strive to deliver on his promises of unity and healing. He should reconsider his pledge to roll back the pro-life protections implemented during his predecessor’s administration. As it stands, though, it seems unlikely he’ll take any steps to protect the unborn.
As one of his first moves as president, Biden reversed the Mexico City Policy, which protects taxpayers from funding abortions overseas. He also wants to increase funding to our nation’s largest abortion provider, Planned Parenthood; to codify Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion through all three trimesters in the United States; and to reinstate an HHS mandate that forces objecting groups to include abortion-inducing drugs in their health care plans.
These are only a few of the deadly policies President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris plan to implement in the days and weeks ahead. The policies run counter to their promises of unity and healing, and—if enacted—would exacerbate the divisions that afflict our nation.
If Biden and Harris follow through on their promises to expand abortion, they will only further fracture our society. Promoting abortion undermines the inherent dignity of human life and goes against the will of the American people.
In fact, most Americans dislike abortion and don’t want to pay for it. Polling by Marist consistently reveals deeply pro-life sentiments among the American electorate. Almost eight in ten Americans, including many who are pro-choice, would limit abortion to—at most—the first three months of pregnancy, or in cases of rape, incest or to save the life of the mother. The average American doesn’t see abortion as something that should be glorified and certainly isn’t in favor of abortion on demand.
Similarly, 77 percent of the public backs the Mexico City Policy and doesn’t think Americans should be funding abortions overseas. These views carry over to the debate about whether the government should allocate money to Planned Parenthood—the organization that provides the vast majority of abortions in the United States—with 58 percent opposing the use of taxpayer dollars to fund abortions domestically.
If President Biden is serious about uniting a polarized America, he should start by abandoning his party’s extreme, pro-abortion agenda. Instead of listening to Democratic politicians and high-powered pro-abortion donors and lobbyists, he should listen to the American people.
Every year, the March for Life brings together the pro-life movement for a peaceful protest. Our theme for this year—”Together Strong: Life Unites!”—is a beautiful springboard for pro-life Americans of every stripe to reflect upon our need for unity and work together in the year ahead to achieve it.
While ongoing security and public health concerns have forced us to move to a largely virtual format, we remain undeterred from our mission of protecting life. We hope President Biden takes a moment to consider our message, puts away divisive policies and takes up a truly unifying agenda.
The last year has been challenging, and we need leaders who want to heal America and protect life, not policies that snuff out the lives of the most vulnerable among us: the unborn.
