Herschel Walker and the Moral Bankruptcy of Anti-Abortion Leaders

Republicans are sticking by Herschel Walker, their U.S. Senate nominee in Georgia, in spite of challenging proof that he impregnated a female and then paid for her abortion. The woman shared with The Every day Beast the receipt from the abortion clinic and a deposited check receipt from a few times later demonstrating a $700 payment from Walker—which the woman stated protected the $575 abortion and connected fees. She also presented a get-nicely card signed by the Heisman Trophy winner. In a subsequent report, the woman advised The Day-to-day Beast that she is the mother of one of Walker’s out-of-wedlock children. Walker’s outspoken son, the conservative podcaster Christian Walker, posted a online video on Twitter corroborating the report: “It’s actually his handwriting in the card [yet] he lies about it. Ok, I’m carried out.” None of this would be controversial, apart from that Walker supports earning abortion unlawful without the need of exceptions.

Republican leaders did not flinch. “Republicans stand with him,” claimed Senator Rick Scott, who runs the GOP’s Senate marketing campaign procedure. “We are whole velocity ahead in Georgia,” said the head of the tremendous PAC aligned with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. Walker’s longtime close friend Donald Trump posted on his social media web site, “They are attempting to damage a guy who has genuine greatness in his future.” No shock there. Successful command of the Senate would be very hard for Republicans devoid of defeating the Democratic incumbent, Senator Rafael Warnock. Guaranteed, Walker is a hypocrite. But political parties, Republican or Democratic, are not in the behavior of cutting unfastened hypocrites, specifically when energy is at stake.

The reaction from America’s foremost anti-abortion corporations, however, is significantly much more surprising and revealing. The leaders of these teams claim to feel that abortion is tantamount to homicide. To stick to their logic, supporting Walker is supporting a gentleman who is credibly accused of paying for a agreement killing.

However the National Suitable to Lifetime Committee issued a defiant assertion: 

The anonymous assault on Herschel Walker is just the most recent in a collection of attempted Democratic character assassinations going back to the allegations versus Justice Clarence Thomas. National Right to Lifestyle stands guiding its endorsement of Herschel Walker. It is the Democratic candidate, Raphael Warnock, who has in fact voted to pay back for thousands of abortions. Herschel Walker wants to defend unborn little ones, though Raphael Warnock needs to see them die through endless abortion. The Democratic occasion understands it can not win on the issues, so we as soon as once again see an tried character assassination, a tactic that is regrettably all much too frequently encouraged by a compliant and prepared media.

Women of all ages Communicate Out PAC, the tremendous PAC aligned with the Susan B. Anthony Professional-Everyday living The usa, also took the prospect at his phrase: “Herschel Walker has denied these allegations in the strongest achievable phrases, and we stand firmly together with him.”

“Strongest possible terms” is charitable. Walker’s defense on Fox News’s Hannity was wobbly. Asked by Sean Hannity if he signed the get-properly card, he unconvincingly responded: “I mail out so many get well—send out so a lot of anything at all.” Requested if he sent any one a $700 test, Walker mentioned, “I send out cash to a great deal of folks.”

The 60-12 months-aged does not deny sending the card or the check out. But he will not give a certain motive why he despatched this card and this check out, permit alone offer evidence that the purpose was not reimbursement for an abortion.

Theoretically, anti-abortion organizations can use utilitarian philosophy to justify sticking by Walker. Why abandon a applicant in excess of a person abortion from 13 years ago when, if he is in the Senate, he can vote to ban hundreds of thousands of abortions? Or to quotation Mr. Spock in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan: “Logic evidently dictates that the requires of the lots of outweigh the demands of the several.”

The dilemma for the professional-life motion is that their leaders do not peddle Vulcan logic. They peddle the notion that each and every daily life is sacred and justifies constitutional legal rights at conception.

The NRLC publishes a guideline, “When They Say … You Say,” on how to counter professional-preference arguments. When responding to the issue, “What if the lady is a victim of rape or incest,” the NRLC recommends this response: “We don’t remedy illness by killing the patient.” When faced with an argument about unwanted kids contributing to poverty, the NRLC features this retort: “Killing this kid will under no circumstances support deal with those problems.” To refute the argument that a fetus is “just a blob of tissue,” the NRLC declares: “The baby residing in her mother is as unique and special a separate man or woman/human currently being as I am from you.”

These sights do not square with chilly utilitarianism. You just can’t insist that just about every fertilized egg is a human becoming and then are unsuccessful to condemn Herschel Walker, who, from that viewpoint, nearly surely paid to eliminate another human being. At minimum, you just cannot do so and be expecting to retain any ethical large ground.

The pro-existence movement has usually welcomed those who admitted to carrying out or acquiring abortions and then expressed remorse. These incorporate Norma McCorvey, the “Roe” in Roe v. Wade, and Bernard Nathanson, the obstetrician who helped found what is now regarded as NARAL Pro-Choice The us, then switched sides and worked with the NRLC on the anti-abortion movie The Silent Scream.

Walker, nonetheless, admits absolutely nothing. Most bizarrely, when requested on The Hugh Hewitt Display, “Do you want to be forgiven?” Walker responded, “Had that occurred, I would have said it, for the reason that it’s nothing to be ashamed of there. You know, folks have carried out that, but I know very little about it.” There’s nothing to be ashamed of … if you aid abortion legal rights! Walker and the anti-abortion outfits backing him, nevertheless, are just shameless.

The electric power-hungry Donald Trump/Mitch McConnell–led GOP could not be worried with holding the moral superior ground, but the professional-everyday living movement has absolutely nothing devoid of moral substantial floor. They are shedding public belief, and even crimson states like Kansas resist their makes an attempt to abolish reproductive legal rights. The professional-daily life motion was able to stack the Supreme Court and overturn Roe. But to pass new legislation—and continue to keep the abortion bans now on the books—anti-abortion activists will need to persuade. They have to persuade those people with combined feelings about abortion that flat bans are a ethical crucial. How can you persuade other people to acknowledge a morally absolutist argument when you have compromised the ethical theory at stake?

Walker’s abortion debacle reveals that the anti-abortion motion is as electricity-hungry as Trump or McConnell. Like a craven politician, it will jettison basic principle if it suggests winning elections, And that raises the issue: To what conclude does the “pro-life” motion want political electrical power? If the objective is to preserve the life of the unborn, then unborn daily life wouldn’t be so expendable. But if the aim is to impose theocratic beliefs on an unwilling citizens, then moral trade-offs become easier to rationalize.