Pa. leads way in protecting life

While the Irish descend even further into their vile cesspool of immorality, we here in Pennsylvania have seen good men and women fight for what is right and decent. After the referendum last month that abolished the ban on abortion in my father’s ancestral land, the supporters of “choice” have started to rattle their sabers and communicate a message that was foretold from the moment mothers cast their votes for the right to terminate their pregnancies: Philosophical fascism has come to Ireland.

This week, the Prime Minister Leo Varadkar announced with barely concealed glee that all hospitals – including Catholic ones – would be required to perform abortions:

“It will not ... be possible for publicly funded hospitals, no matter who their patron or owner is, to opt out of providing these necessary services which will be legal in this state once this legislation is passed by the Dáil and Seanad (senate).”

And there you have it. If even the smallest amount of public largesse falls into an institution’s pockets, and regardless of its religious affiliation, that institution will be legally required to help its female patients terminate their pregnancies.

There is still a narrow “conscience” exception for individuals who refuse to perform abortions, but one wonders how large that exception will be and if the employee will still be forced to refer a woman for an abortion even if he or she refuses to hold the scalpel that severs the umbilical cord, or the forceps that crush the tiny skull.

Hearing the cool, clinical manner in which he stated that religious objections would be ignored and overrode in the formerly Catholic country was quite chilling. Varadkar added that “hospitals, like for example Holles Street, which is a Catholic voluntary ethos hospital, the Mater, St. Vincent’s and others will be required, and will be expected to, carry out any procedure that is legal in this state and that is the model we will follow.”

“Will be expected.” That is a command, an order, a mandate. The institutions are made instruments of the government will, and there will be no opportunity for them, at a macro level, to refuse to commit acts that would violate their mission statements and principles.

We narrowly escaped that type of mandate last week when our Supreme Court refused, at least for this round, to force a private cake baker to violate his religious beliefs. But as many noted, the high court avoided the central issue of whether the government can essentially impose a cultural consensus on every U.S. citizen, whether we accept it or not.

And that’s just about cakes (although Marie Antoinette made that argument and it didn’t end well for her, so it’s an open question).

Thank God I don’t live in Ireland. I live in Pennsylvania, where the Legislature is about to approve a bill that will protect the humanity and dignity of children born with Down Syndrome. I’ve written about this before, in the same context as the Irish vote, but the stark contrast between the old world and the new has become even more striking with the passage of time.

Some people have criticized the state House and Senate for going ahead with the legislative protections for fetuses diagnosed with Down, for the usual reasons: It’s a woman’s right to do with her body what she wants. (Sure, but it’s not her body.) Who will take care of the child when it’s old? (Let’s improve resources and not eliminate the customer base.) Why aren’t pro-lifers adopting kids? (They do, in droves.)

But the fact is, Pennsylvania, cares more about the dignity of its citizens and its children than a country that was steeped in a culture of life for centuries.

Ireland has become unrecognizable, a place where lyric poetry has devolved into morbid dirge. Pennsylvania, on the other hand, leans away from nihilism, and toward the light.

God bless (this part of) America.