The following statement comes from Fr. Paul Schenck, a Catholic priest with a long, admirable record of actively opposing abortion:

I was a founder of Project Rescue, part of the most aggressive wings of the pro-life movement. I was one of the organizers of the Spring of Life, that brought thousands of pro-life activists to Western New York, shutting down abortion clinics for weeks. I was the petitioner in the US Supreme Court First Amendment case, Schenck V Pro-Choice Network that opened up sidewalks for pro-life counselors. I am pro-life. I believe each and every life is sacred. From the moment a new human being comes into existence, to the last breath, life is inviolable. I believe every person is created in God’s image and likeness; unique, unrepeatable and irreplaceable. I believe every person possesses intrinsic dignity. I won’t change on that. But the Pro-Life movement wrongly placed its hope in a temporary political victory made of symbolic gestures and empty promises. Meanwhile, Donald Trump and his administration have gutted the pro-life movement’s moral authority by dismissing Black lives and vulnerable persons with underlying conditions. The administration has denigrated the poor, consigned asylum seeking migrants to death at the hands of traffickers and gangs, and jeopardized children by tearing them from their parents. President Trump polarized life-saving mask wearing, advancing individual preferences over public health. Those actions aren’t pro-life, but anti-life. I’ll vote Biden because the Trump “pro-life” charade must end. If there’s one thing clear about the Trump administration, it is that it does not support the sanctity of human life or the dignity of the human person. We need an administration that will protect human life by defending human dignity, something Trump appears unwilling to do. That is why I’ll vote for Joe Biden.

No matter how many times I read it I cannot stop thinking it must be a farce. It cannot possibly have been written by Fr. Schenck. The second half of the statement just lays waste to the first half, so it must be some kind of joke.

But it is not funny at all. It is scandalous, Fr. Schenck. Coming from you this is heart-piercing.

Incoherent

“I am pro life. I believe each and every life is sacred…life is inviolable.”

Since you believe that so completely, you cast your vote for the man who allies himself with Planned Parenthood, the organization responsible for killing nearly 350,000 unborn children in 2019 alone. The man who has vowed to ensure Roe v. Wade is codified into federal law. The man who has vowed to ensure taxpayer dollars are used to fund abortions across this nation and in other nations as well.

The man who chose for his Vice President the woman who, when confronted with incontrovertible evidence that Planned Parenthood sells the body parts of aborted children for profit, didn’t prosecute Planned Parenthood for their despicable crimes but instead persecuted the man who exposed their wicked deeds.

Joe Biden is the candidate who defends the dignity of human life? Really, Fr. Schenck?

About Black Lives…

“Donald Trump and his administration have gutted the pro-life movement’s moral authority by dismissing Black lives…”

I sincerely hope this is not a reference to the Black Lives Matter organization. Surely, you are not supportive of that openly Marxist, anti-family, evil organization. I do not know then, what you mean by dismissing Black lives. Is that a reference to his support for law enforcement? I certainly hope not.

I’d remind you that more Black babies are killed in the womb than are born alive in this country, and it is Joe Biden and Planned Parenthood who endorse that slaughter, not Donald Trump.

Far be it from me to speak for Black Americans, but Black Voices can explain why they support the president.

Also note that President Trump signed the First Step Act in 2018, a prison reform bill that will no doubt positively affect many Black men and women in prison.

Lives at the Border

When you say Trump’s administration is “jeopardizing children by tearing them from their parents,” you make it sound as though the ongoing crisis at our border were an amusement park entrance and Border patrol agents are just “tearing” kids away from their parents for the sheer sadistic pleasure of it.

Given the horrifying reality of cartels controlling the border, do you not think it prudent to find out if the adult who arrived with the child is actually the child’s parent, rather than a sex trafficker?

Democrats claim that the parents of over 500 children could not be found, but the truth is not so simple. Many of them have been located in foreign countries, but they don’t want the U.S. sending their children back to them. Maybe they hope the U.S. will give those children citizenship.

Our immigration system has been a terrible mess for decades. I think people of good will agree that we must have a humane, safe, and workable system that welcomes the immigrant and protects our nation.

Masks??

“President Trump polarized life-saving mask wearing, advancing individual preferences over public health.”

What a flimsy, feeble argument. For six months now there has been an ever-changing story about this COVID virus. There is plenty of legitimate disagreement about best practices for containing it and protecting the most vulnerable. All scientists and doctors do not agree.

By the current mask-wearing rationale, we shall never again be able to go out in public without our faces covered, (or even gather in our own homes!) since there will always be some sort of germ we might spread by speaking, singing, or just breathing.

How could you possibly put mask-wearing on par with tearing an unborn child limb from limb? A healthy person out in public without a mask on (as every person on the planet was just 10 months ago) is not deliberate, lethal violence against a helpless innocent by a paid assassin. It is shocking you would even intimate such a thing.

How Can You Fail to See This Good?

You claim it is clear the Trump administration does not support the sanctity of human life or the dignity of the human person, and I have to wonder what planet you’re on. Scroll down the list of specific actions Trump has taken to defend the sanctity of human life, Fr. Schenck. Does none of this matter to you?

Tell me, do you imagine for one moment that Biden/Harris would nominate a woman like Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court?

Do you think the Little Sisters of the Poor find Biden/Harris very supportive of their freedom to not be forced to provide abortifacients? I ask because Biden has already promised to revoke President Trump’s religious exemption to the Obamacare mandate.

Democrat Policies are the Point 

Let’s talk about what Democrats and Joe Biden really have planned for America. He vows that in his first 100 days he’ll sign the deceptively-named “Equality Act” into law. If you don’t understand what that legislation will actually do, then shame on you. It will harm every girl and woman in America, perhaps irrevocably, and that’s only one of its wicked effects.

You have cast an affirmative vote for the Democrat Party, with its written promises of taxpayer-funded abortion mandates, contraceptive mandates, gender-identity mandates, denial of Religious Liberty, and on and on. You have the unfathomable audacity to claim Biden is the one who will defend human life and dignity. It is irrational and morally incoherent. 

Catholic Scandal

Biden is a baptized Catholic who publicly vows to pass laws and enact policies that explicitly contradict the teachings of the Church. He has presided over a same-sex “marriage.” His zealous support for abortion-on-demand-without-restriction is a fact. By his own actions he has excommunicated himself from the Church. Were he to present himself before you for Holy Communion, you would be obliged to refuse him for the sake of not profaning the Body and Blood of the Lord. 

With your vote and public statement of support for Biden, it seems more like you have given him cover and betrayed the truth. The little ones you once fought for seem to matter less than defeating Donald Trump because “orange man bad.” 

You voted for the party that denies the humanity of the child in the womb. You can’t blame that on Donald Trump.

 

Jennifer Hartline is a senior contributor to The Stream. You can follow her at @jenniehartline.