‘It’s something that government should not be getting in the middle of…’
(Claire Russel, Liberty Headlines) Abortion will remain an “essential” service in Michigan because it is “life sustaining,” according to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
When asked about states such as Texas that have put a hold on abortions during the coronavirus pandemic, Whitmer declared that comparing abortions to elective surgeries, as Texas has done, is “ridiculous.”
“We stopped elective surgeries here in Michigan,” she said. “Some people have tried to say that that type of a procedure is considered the same and that’s ridiculous. A woman’s healthcare, her whole future, her ability to decide if and when she starts a family is not an election, it is a fundamental to her life.”
Democrat Gov. Gretchen Whitmer says abortion is “life-sustaining”https://t.co/yiMr8Xs85q pic.twitter.com/A7fnBZpZ3A
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) April 16, 2020
“It is life sustaining,” Whitmer said of abortion, adding, “It’s something that government should not be getting in the middle of.”
Ironically, Whitmer has garnered headlines for a wave of protests over her arbitrary decisions of what the government should and should not be getting in the middle of.
While she has deemed it acceptable for citizens in the state to be banned from seeing other family members or traveling to different residences, they are allowed to visit marijuana dispensaries and state-run liquor stores.
Whitmer’s state has the third-highest death total for coronavirus victims, led only by fellow blue states New York and New Jersey.
However, she initially threatened to block the use of potentially life-saving hydroxychloroquine to treat the virus, simply because President Donald Trump had endorsed it.
Texas, on the other hand, is one of several states temporarily banning abortions as part of a larger stay on all elective medical procedures.
“We must work together as Texans to stop the spread of COVID-19 and ensure that our health care professionals and facilities have all the resources they need to fight the virus at this time,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a statement.
“No one is exempt from the governor’s executive order on medically unnecessary surgeries and procedures, including abortion providers,” he added.
Pro-abortion groups have challenged these restrictions in court, but a federal appeals court upheld Texas’s surgical abortion ban in a ruling last week, arguing the state has the right to use “extreme” measures to protect the health of its citizens. Medical abortions, however, must still continue in the state, according to the three-judge panel.
The Trump campaign slammed “the extreme abortion lobby” for using “a global health crisis to promote the killing of unborn children.”
“It’s disgusting, but not surprising,” said Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh.