Dayton Daily News

Supreme Court nomination fight is about life and death

- StarParker StarParker is president of the Center forUrbanRe­newal and Education.

Chuck Schumer, Senate minority leader, says, “Our No. 1 goal must be to communicat­e the stakes of this Supreme Court fight to the American people.” He continued, “nothing is off the table.”

Nothing? Not even violence?

After the confirmati­on hearings of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, members of the Trump administra­tion were being assaulted in public spaces, in restaurant­s.

Sen. Schumer is right that the American people must know what’s at stake.

Will we have a culture of life and civility, or a culture of death, violence and chaos?

The abortion rate in Schumer’s own New York state stands the highest in the nation. Among Black women in New York City, according to theWall Street Journal, “thousands more Black babies are aborted each year than born alive.”

The last Democratic president, Barack Obama, was the first sitting president to address Planned Parenthood, provider of hundreds of thousands of abortions each year, and concluded by saying: “Thank you, Planned Parenthood. God bless you.”

The Affordable Care Act, the signature legislatio­n of President Obama and the Democratic Party, required employers to provide free abortifaci­ents, abortion-inducing drugs, to employees.

Democrats want a Supreme Court justice who sees wanton destructio­n of human life in the womb as “women’s health.”

We should appreciate the broader implicatio­ns of the abortion issue. When we are talking about life and death, we are talking about life’s meaning and how that plays out in our culture.

The whole nation went into upheaval when the video showing the horrible murder of George Floyd, suffocated under the knee of a policeman, went viral.

Why was the reaction so intense?

Life and death were there to see in front of our eyes. The visual display of a life senselessl­y snuffed out was more than anyone could bear.

It is exactly what happens when a mother sees the ultrasound of the unborn child growing in her womb. I do not believe anything has strengthen­ed the pro-life movement like ultrasound.

John Newton, the repentant slave trader, wrote the haunting hymn “Amazing

Grace” to express his grief about his sinful behavior. The hymn concludes with the refrain “Was blind, but now I see.”

The legalizati­on of abortion on demand in America in 1973 amounted to a puncture in our nation’s soul. We were blind. We must work hard so that we will see again.

We have been watching the inexorable unraveling of the social and cultural fabric of our nation since the Roe v. Wade decision, since we decided to devalue life.

In 1960, 72% of American adults over 18 were married. Today, it is 50%.

In 1970, about 11% of births were to unwed mothers. Today, it exceeds 40%.

Birthrates are at an alltime low and well below what is needed for our population to grow.

Fortunatel­y, President Donald Trump understand­s what is at stake.

His No. 1 goal, like that of Sen. Schumer, is “to communicat­e the stakes of this Supreme Court fight to the American people.”

Due to the diligence of this president and the Republican Senate, we will soon see an outstandin­g conservati­ve woman — one who respects both the sanctity of life and the sanctity of our nation’s institutio­ns — fill this court vacancy.

Nothing less than the future of our nation is at stake.

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