In a recent interview, NBC News correspondent Hallie Jackson asked presidential candidate Kamala Harris whether Harris’s pro-abortion policy would include “concessions” such as “religious exemptions” from performing or participating in abortions. Jackson’s purpose was to suggest a strategic compromise so that Harris could get the support of liberal Republican senators such as Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins for federal legislation that would effectively re-institute the abortion policy of Roe v. Wade. In other words, Jackson was offering the opportunity for Harris to moderate, even in the tiniest way, her abortion absolutism.
Harris declined the opportunity. Interrupting Jackson even before she could finish the question, Harris declared, “I don’t think we should be making concessions when we’re talking about a fundamental freedom to make decisions about your own body.” Abortion “cannot be negotiable,” she continued, asserting that she advocates “the protections of Roe v. Wade.” “And that’s it,” she concluded.
Opposition to Christians and religious Americans
Thus, in a couple of sentences, Kamala Harris summarized both her abortion extremism and her antipathy for religious believers. As president, she would zealously work to implement a national policy of abortion on demand for any or no reason, and she would expressly deny religious exemptions for Catholic hospitals, physicians and other health care workers. If Harris has her way as president, abortion would not merely be permitted: It would be compelled by the federal government. And religious believers would have no protection from participating in and paying for abortion on demand.
We know this already through Harris’s past statements. The NBC interview simply crystallizes her grotesque abortion policy and religious bigotry in one compact paragraph.
As Attorney General of California, Harris claimed to have co-sponsored California’s “Reproductive FACT Act,” which then-governor Jerry Brown signed into law in 2015. In Harris’ words, the act “ensures that all women have equal access” to abortion. In reality, the FACT Act was an egregious attempt to compel moral and political speech. It required pro-life pregnancy crisis centers to post signs in their facilities or hand out leaflets to their clients, explaining that the State of California would pay for their abortions and providing contact information for abortion mills. In other words, Harris was perfectly willing to force Catholics and other opponents of abortion to promote abortion. Fortunately, in June 2018 the United States Supreme Court struck down the FACT Act, calling it “content-based regulation of speech,” in violation of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
Irrefutable efforts to attack conscience protections
Harris’ record as a U.S. senator further illustrates both her abortion extremism and religious bigotry. For example, she introduced the so-called “Do No Harm Act,” which, if passed into law, would inflict irreparable harm on religious believers, forcing participation in immoral medical procedures and therapies. In introducing the act, Harris specifically asserted that its very purpose was to prevent religious believers from invoking the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) as a defense against performing abortions, sterilization or so-called gender-affirming care. In other words, the Do No Harm Act was expressly intended to deny conscience exemptions, consistent with her recent NBC interview.
Similarly, Harris was an original Senate sponsor of the so-called “Equality Act.” If passed and signed into law, this act would have denied churches, religiously affiliated schools and hospitals, and other faith-based institutions from a host of intrusive federal laws and regulations. For example, the Equality Act would force Catholic schools to hire teachers and other employees even if they were vocal advocates of moral positions or lived open lifestyles contrary to the Faith. It would have declared virtually any public space a “public accommodation,” including church festivals, fish fries and athletic events. It then would have compelled such events to permit males to use female restrooms and boys to compete against girls in Catholic school sports.
The recent NBC interview did not tell us anything new about Kamala Harris’ abortion extremism or her antipathy for religious believers. She is a zealous advocate of abortion for any or no reason up to term. And her hostility to religion and its free exercise is already well established. The NBC interview provided her with the opportunity to modify those extreme positions. Instead, she doubled down.
