Sen. John Kennedy, R-Louisiana, exposed Democrats’ extreme pro-abortion agenda Wednesday when a witness basically admitted she supports aborting unborn babies for any reason up to birth.
In his typical quaint, straightforward manner, Kennedy asked Professor Michele Goodwin, an expert witness for Democrat lawmakers, to explain her exact position on abortion legislation during a U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Red State reports.
But Goodwin, a chancellor’s professor of constitutional law at the University of California Irvine and director of the Center for Biotechnology and Global Health Policy, never did – at least not directly. Instead, she became angry and arrogant with Kennedy when he asked for a simple “yes or no” to his questions.
The Republican lawmaker began by asking Goodwin if she supports it “being legal to abort an unborn child up to the moment of birth.”
Goodwin responded that it was “not a yes or no question.”
But Kennedy pressed her, saying “people sort of talk around this issue” too often and he wanted a “yes or no answer” to understand her “perspective” about specific abortion policy.
“If there were a bill that said that a woman has an unfettered right to abort an unborn baby for any reason up to the moment of birth, would you vote yes or would you vote no?” he asked again.
“Senator Kennedy, I refuse to be shackled by your question,” Goodwin responded angrily. “What I have answered is that there are conditions during pregnancy that mean after 10 weeks, after 14 weeks, 20 weeks, 24 weeks -”
Kennedy interrupted, “But you’re advocating a law that says that an unborn baby can be aborted up to the moment of birth for any reason, are you not?”
Goodwin responded with a bizarre interpretation of the U.S. Constitution that basically confirmed she does support aborting unborn babies for any reason up until birth.
“Let me clarify what the 14th Amendment says in the first sentence: that citizens of this United States are citizens that are born,” she told Kennedy. “That is what our Constitution says. Do you support our Constitution?”
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The 14th Amendment mentions “persons born or naturalized in the United States” and some abortion activists interpret that wrongly to claim human rights do not begin until birth. But “born” refers to citizenship, not personhood. Her argument is more extreme even than Roe v. Wade, which allowed states to protect unborn babies before birth because the justices recognized that, at least once a baby reaches viability, states should be allowed to protect their right to life. Last summer, the U.S. Supreme Court determined in Dobbs v. Jackson that abortion is not a constitutional right at all.
But Goodwin’s misinterpretation is telling. Although she never gave Kennedy a “yes or no,” her mention of the word “born” indicates her answer – and that of the Democrat leaders who invited her – is “yes” to abortions without limits up to birth.
At the end of their exchange, Kennedy called out Goodwin’s cowardice, saying she is “afraid” to admit her pro-abortion stance plainly and openly.
“I think you’re afraid to say that you do support that. If you do support it, I think–just for the purposes of an intellectual discussion–you ought to just say so,” he said.
The reason for her avoidance is because her position is extreme and out of touch with most Americans, and she knows it.
Polls consistently show that Americans support strong legal protections for unborn babies. A new NPR poll this week found 67 percent believe abortions only should be allowed, at most, up to the first three months of pregnancy. A strong minority, 41 percent, would prohibit all abortions or allow them only in cases of rape, incest or to save the mother’s life.
LifeNews highlighted 25 additional recent polls showing most Americans believe all or most abortions should be illegal and taxpayers should not be forced to fund abortions.
In contrast, the Democratic Party position on the issue supports abortions for any reason without limits and calls for ending the Hyde Amendment and forcing taxpayers to fund abortions. Currently, Democrats in Congress are advocating for a bill nicknamed the Abortion Without Limits Up to Birth Act that would do exactly that.
