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Planned Parenthood President and CEO Cecile Richards told a convention audience in Washington DC Monday that progressives can't "take back political power if we don't also stand up every single day for reproductive healthcare including safe and legal abortion in America."
Then she posed this question: "Why should Christians be able to impose their views on women?"
Richards remarks about taking back political power were made in the context of a convention sponsored by State Innovation Exchange (SIX)---a progressive Left organization that supports legislators in advancing and defending progressive policies, including the expansion of abortion across the country.
They would support Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell.
There is discussion within the Democratic Party regarding whether or not there should be a candidate litmus test regarding abortion. The discussion was ignited after the DNC Chair Tom Perez said in April that support for abortion was non-negotiable.
Richards also, of course, blasted this administration by using a gun analogy--- saying they have put "women in the crosshairs since day one." This was a reference to the Trump Administration's attempts to defund Planned Parenthood and, more recently, Trump's broadening of religious freedom exemptions for employers with religious and moral objections to covering contraception under Obamacare.
She, not surprisingly, didn't mention the host of religious organizations and companies, including the 5-year long lawsuit from the Little Sisters of the Poor whose homes for the elderly would have been threatened by fines if they did not receive some exemption to Obama's mandate.
In her interview with NPR's David Green, she was asked, "Are you concerned that the law is on the administration's side here?"
MS. Richards answered, "You have all kinds of organizations who may have their own political or religious views. Why should they be able to impose that on American women? It's simply not right. And we'll be fighting it every step of the way..."
What she will be fighting "every step of the way" is actually a fundamental foundational belief upon which the United States of America was founded.
Religious freedom.
The first question that most of us who believe in the sanctity of life might ask would be, "Who is imposing their views on whom?"
Yesterday, CBN News published David Brody's interview with Attorney General Jeff Session---one of those bad guys in the mind of Ms. Richards:
David Brody: Is it the Department of Justice’s view that cake bakers… these Christian, is it the view of the Department of Justice from a guidance perspective, not law, I understand law is different, that they have a right, if you will, to not sell a cake to someone if they’re having a gay wedding? Is that what the Department of Justice is saying as it relates to the guidance that they put out?
Attorney General Jeff Sessions: “Well what I would say to you now, while the matter is in litigation, but I would just say to you that too often we have ignored what the Constitution actually says. It says Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of a religion nor prohibiting the free exercise thereof. So the question is, the cake baker has more than just a personal view here. He has a religious view and he feels that he is not being able to freely exercise his religion by being required to participate in a ceremony in some fashion that he does not believe in. So we think that right is a fundamental right and ought to be respected as we work through this process. Of course in the 1990’s we passed a religious freedom restoration act that said the government should not constrict a person’s religious belief without a compelling reason to do so. So we think that statute has been ignored too often and not respected sufficiently. And so when you consider those two things, then you’re getting not only greater protection for people’s religious beliefs, that I think should be given.”
The Religious Freedom Restoration Act that "Senator Sessions" helped pass was signed by President Bill Clinton on November 16, 1993.
Before signing the Act, the New York Times reported that President Clinton said, "We all have a shared desire to protect the most precious of all American liberties---religious freedom."
The NYT also reported that Vice President Al Gore was cheering him on.
Clearly, Cecile Richards and her followers are not part of that "shared belief."
A/G Sessions is right. The Religious Freedom Restoration Act has been ignored, in part because conservatives and Christians have failed to pay attention to the Left's all-out assault on religious freedom, and in some cases, we have remained silent declaring it to be the "Christian thing to do."
While it sounds pious to declare that Christians should not be involved in the "social issues"---"politics"--- we are clearly called to be salt and light. If the light is hidden under the bushel what difference can it make?
The Bible says, "none."
We can all be glad that George Washington, not Cecile Richards, led our effort to separate ourselves from the tyranny of King George III and embrace the Religious Freedom affirmed in the First Amendment.
Be Informed. Be Vigilant. Be Discerning. Be Prayerful.