Silencing dissent on abortion

Matthew Hoy
By Matthew Hoy on December 8, 2016

The left has its idols: the Earth, "free" healthcare, and abortion.

The greatest of these is abortion.

Here in California, the legislature and Gov. Jerry Brown were concerned that women undergoing unplanned pregnancies weren't killing their children at a high enough rate and turning to largely religiously run crisis pregnancy centers for support and counseling.

So, they passed the "FACT" Act which requires these private, non-profit facilities to advertise options for free abortions.

No similar legislation requires abortion providers to post information on where pregnant mothers can get free prenatal care and other help if they want to keep their baby or give the child up for adoption. And Planned Parenthood isn't really pro-choice anyway; its 2013-14 annual report revealed that the abattoir did 327,653 abortions and just 1,880 adoption referrals—a ratio of 174 to 1.

Courts have found this sort of coerced speech a violation of the First Amendment in other states, but the Ninth Circus Circuit has said this is an allowable regulation as part of "informed consent." How informed consent applies to places that don't actually do any medical procedures is unclear, but legal logic wasn't what the Ninth Circuit required. All it wanted was a rationale that allowed it to uphold its preferred policy choice.

Make no mistake, abortion supporters here in the United States would like to go further. While they decry even commonsense efforts to protect the safety of women seeking abortions, they seek to impose ever-more restrictions on their political foes.

Where would they like to end up? They'd sure like to end up like France.

A Pro-Life protest in France.
A Pro-Life protest in France.

The French Senate adopted a bill that will make it a crime to post pro-life information on the internet on Wednesday.

The Senate voted 173-126 to approve legislation that will make it a crime for any website to publish material at odds with the nation’s abortion regime. The legislation, which passed the French National Assembly on Dec. 1, will prosecute pro-life activists for “exercising, by any mean, moral and psychological pressures, threats or any act of intimidation against people seeking information on a voluntarily termination of pregnancy.”

Sen. Francoise Laborde, a member of France’s Radical Party of the Left, said during debate that pro-life websites constituted “horrors and lies” and should be prevented from operating. The bill targets those who operate pro-life websites or provide information about abortion alternatives. Violators will face up to two years in prison and $30,000 in fines.

I'm reminded of an argument/debate I watched online between Steven Crowder and vaguely familiar comedian Christopher Titus on gun control. At one point the debate veers into the First Amendment's guarantee of free speech. Crowder makes the point that—like the Second Amendment's right to bear arms—freedom of speech is also almost uniquely American.

Titus disagrees and takes the position that Canada and all of Western Europe also have freedom of speech. This week's action by the French Senate should disabuse Titus of his beliefs going forward.

Abortion is one of the left's sacred believes, and they will brook no dissent.

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