Homer: ‘Let’s Do Abortion Next’

By Matt Homer

According to the MIT Technology Review: “The emergency antibody that Trump received last week was developed with the use of a cell line originally derived from abortion tissue, according to Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, the company that developed the experimental drug.”

Last week, President Trump described his treatment for Covid-19 as “miracles coming down from God,” while also promising to make it free to all Americans.

An omission? An oversight?

One morning in 2015, during my time with the Sorensen Institute for Political Leadership, our bipartisan class was asked to separate into groups of two based on this question: “Do you believe capital punishment should be legal?”

Really? Easy! I marched proudly to the pro-capital punishment side. LAW AND ORDER.

Next, we were asked to have a conversation, a debate, regarding our positions. I listened to a Marine and NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) officer, a public prosecutor, people of faith, and members of the Black and Brown communities all oppose the death penalty. Not just oppose but defend their opposition.

They didn’t call us stupid; they didn’t call us evil. They didn’t pretend to be morally superior. We talked. We listened. I learned more about the issue, but even more importantly, we all learned more about each other.

The debate ended, we all sat back down, and I realized two things: I am not as smart as I thought I was, and this is a very complex issue.

After finding my seat, in an attempt to lighten the moment or distract from the buzzing of information swirling in my head, I blurted out, “Let’s do abortion next!”

So, in the spirit of civility and respect, let’s do abortion next, shall we?

Abortion, like many complex public policy issues, has been exploited so that partisan politicians can divide, co-opt, and target voters, and they’ve done so by weaponizing religion and morality.

The decline of community and the rise of commercialized politics in America has created an empire of special interests that is fueled by outrage but requires extraordinarily little information or commitment. This commercialization has left Americans knowing less about their candidates of choice, and everything and nothing about a few issues that have been neatly packaged for consumption.

The simplicity is appealing, especially for the low information voter: I am right, and I am good; therefore, you are bad, and you are evil.

Moral superiority is now the default. Read? Listen? Feel empathy? Self-awareness? Talk?

Why?

I’m right.

I’m good.

Like the Priest and Levite of old, blinded by the endorphins of self-righteousness and unfounded high-mindedness, we no longer have to see the broken, robbed, and beaten lying in the ditch. There are kids in cages. Six have died. There is a global pandemic; 210,000 Americans are dead. Racial injustice rages. Say their names.

Where are the Good Samaritans? The person moved with compassion for the unknown, the messy, and the broken; and which of the three understands the concept of neighbor?

She didn’t want to be in that room, faced with that choice, and hurting. But you have perfected your moral outraged, feel superior behind your keyboard and your stain glass windows, but your neighbor needs you to understand it’s not that easy. Have you even ever talked to her, noticed her, cared about her?

The communal ties of empathy that bridge and bind have been severed, and we are divided. Lightening-fast technological advancement has provided us with limitless opportunities for connection, but those connections are tribal, bifurcated, and siloed.

When Donald Trump calls Kamala Harris “a monster” on Fox News, something resonates. How could she not be a monster? She supports legal abortion.

Monster!

But have we stopped to realize the cost of categorizing the unknown and the unclear? Civility is lost, community is severed, and respect for the human you are disagreeing with becomes an un-crossable divide. Categorizing the issue of abortion into two categories – good and evil – dehumanizes those humans who disagree.

How ironic.

For some on the far right, abortion is now the permanent “get out of jail free” card for any “pro-life” politician. These voters have been co-opted into a mindset that absolves the “pro-life” politicians of any other sin, unless compared to another “pro-life” politician. Never mind the fact that Republican leadership often shuns discussion and shields members of Congress from even addressing the issue in Committee or on the floor.

The Presidency of Donald Trump has tested the resolve of the pro-life voter. For some, the issue of abortion remains the door to another dimension, the emergency escape, when supporters are confronted with the fact that Donald Trump is bereft of a moral compass, but it’s not that easy.

After my, “Let’s do abortion next,” comment, my classmate Jessica later told me, “That’s the moment I knew we’d be friends.” She was right. Oh, and we chose different sides on the issue of capital punishment that morning. She was my opposition. She is my friend.

Matt Homer is a former pastor, congressional staffer, political operative who worked on both the 2016 Trump campaign and the 2012 Romney campaign, elected political official in Virginia’s 6th Congressional District, and lobbyist.

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