Anti-choice politicians are exploiting the COVID-19 crisis to push their extreme agenda and ban abortion
Time and time again as the Coronavirus pandemic has worsened across this nation, taking both people’s lives and livelihoods, we have seen that Republicans at both the federal and state level have allowed dogged, ridged and extreme ideology to override science, facts and experts. From their lack of preparation, their downplaying of the threat and their use of the crisis to advance their ideology on a broad base of economic, environmental and social issues, Republicans have been ruled not by fact but rather by ideology. The sad and dangerous truth is, this is not the exception, it is the rule. It is chapter one in their playbook. It is something the radical right has long had practice in. And it is something I have seen time and time again as the head of one of the largest reproductive freedom advocacy organizations in the country.
This is a faction of American extremism for whom enlightened and rational thought will always take a backseat to a rigid concept of religious fundamentalism. As they have fought their way to control — first within the Republican party and then within our public policy writ large — they’ve put doctrine above data-driven policy at every step.
The antecedents for this thinking go back as far as the mid-1970s, when — although it is hard to imagine it now — most devout church-going people did not want to meddle in secular affairs of the state, and most Americans recoiled at the idea of religion and government mixing. They had to be taught to do so. Paul Weyrich, a right-wing movement leader and co-founder of the Moral Majority, wrote at the time, “When political power is achieved, the moral majority will have the opportunity to re-create this great nation.”
For this crowd, everything is an act of God testing us or exacting retribution, as was evident when Jerry Falwell publicly blamed the tragedy of 9/11 on feminists, LGBTQ people and the ACLU.
Once relegated to the fringes of cable news and the nether reaches of the GOP, this group has now ingratiated and strong-armed their way to the center of power, holding plum jobs in the Trump Administration and having regular consultations with the President and Vice President. The Trump-Pence White House caters to fundamentalism — religious and market — with a healthy dose of divine retribution exacted on those who are not in the flock.
Those of us in their crosshairs have felt their growing power long before COVID-19. As governor of Indiana, Mike Pence was so obsessed with asserting his personal faith that he ignored warnings by public health officials not to close reproductive health clinics — often the only public health clinics for miles around. As a result, Indiana experienced massive spikes in HIV rates and maternal health problems. During his time in Congress, Pence tried to direct federal funding for HIV treatment only to groups who engage in efforts to “convert” LGBTQ people, a practice so psychologically abusive it has been outlawed in many states.
Spreading medical disinformation to support an ideological approach over science-based public policy is standard practice for anti-choice forces. Now the whole country feels the repercussions as the Administration underplays the threat of the new Coronavirus, makes unsubstantiated claims about treatments and punishes governors who criticize their efforts, further endangering the people in those states. They continue to ignore entreaties by scientists to lift bans on medical tissue research that might hold the keys to treat COVID-19.
So, this Administration is not doing what it should to prevent a full-blown epidemic in this country. What they are doing is just as disturbing. In a time of national emergency, this Administration is working with radical right anti-choice leaders to further their long-term goal of ending legal abortion. Instead of focusing laser-like on the crisis at hand, COVID czar VP Pence diverted government resources to a call with anti-choice groups last week to strategize on how to take advantage of the crisis.
The anti-choice radical right has heralded their unprecedented access to this Administration almost since the beginning. Last week, a cohort of national leaders sent a letter to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar weaponizing disinformation to demand the agency force providers to stop providing abortion care and take other steps to undermine reproductive freedom during this pandemic.
Many state officials have already begun their efforts to do just that, despite the fact that the medical community is united in determining that abortion is essential and time-sensitive healthcare. Ohio’s attorney general issued an order that abortion providers in the state stop providing what it called “nonessential and elective surgical abortions” in light of the public health crisis. Texas followed suit, tacking on “penalties of up to $1,000 or 180 days of jail time” for those who don’t comply. And governors in Mississippi and Tennessee and Iowa have signaled their intent to follow suit.
Not to be outdone, anti-choice Republicans in Washington, DC, sought to exploit this crisis for their own political gain. The Senate’s COVID-19 relief bill, passed Wednesday night, expanded the discriminatory Hyde Amendment, an unjust federal restriction blocking coverage for abortion. With new, anti-choice strings attached to federal relief money, more women in more states will be denied access to care.
In light of these most recent abortion restrictions, The New York Times Editorial Board, after looking at the data, called for lifting non-medical restrictions on abortion and expanding access to contraception in order to allow for people to safely end pregnancies and minimize unintended pregnancies at a time when people are stuck at home. That would be the sober and rational response.
We hope that this Administration will take heed, but we won’t hold our breath. Continuing to substitute ideology for science and trade in endless disinformation in this moment will not only hurt women and pregnant people searching for relief, as it has for some time, but it has and will continue to hurt every single person in this country.
