Speaking on Fox News's America's Newsroom Wednesday morning, Kayleigh McEnany, former White House Press Secretary and co-host of the network's Outnumbered, told co-hosts Dana Perino and Bill Hemmer that pro-lifers should be more proactive heading into the 2024 election, challenging them to "put Democrats on defense" over their party's support of abortion through the ninth month of pregnancy.
Perino began the segment by claiming that while Republican candidates aren’t “really wanting to take on this issue” of abortion, “this issue is going to take them on, if they don’t.”
McEnany agreed, urging pro-life candidates to tackle the issue “head-on."
To quote @GOPChairwoman: "We are the pro-life, pro-women, pro-family party, and we can win on abortion but that means putting democrats on defense and forcing them to own their own extreme positions"
— SBA Pro-Life America (@sbaprolife) August 9, 2023
"When you don't respond the lies become the truth."@KayleighMcEnany on why… pic.twitter.com/hUaEP7MYKo
“Talk about supporting mothers,” McEnany pointed to as her first piece of advice.
She’s right. While many leftists claim that pro-lifers are “forced birthers” and only care about the baby, pro-lifers are often the ones stepping up to provide moms and families with the information, medical care, and material support they need to take care of an unplanned child. But the fact of the matter is that there needs to be more assistance for mothers so that they feel well, equipped and encouraged to proceed with their pregnancies.
More often than not, that's the goal of pregnancy resource centers. Many of them provide resources for parents like classes, essentials and maternity clothes. McEnany also suggested legislation that would provide “child support from the moment of conception.” To McEnany’s point, if women don’t feel supported, there’s a low chance that they’ll carry out their pregnancy to term.
McEnany also suggested that Republicans should “talk about this from a place of compassion.” Oftentimes, when heated arguments see more fuel dumped on the fire, people on both sides of the issue use harsh language and visuals to get their point across.
McEnany advocated for a different approach, one that shows parents that they’d be supported and that both their lives, and their child’s life has value and needs to be protected. Screaming, “abortion is murder,” for example, isn’t as effective as the right seems to think. McEnany urged candidates to use personal anecdotes to win the fight for life, like explaining a beautiful pro-life story instead of accusing mothers who abort their kids of being murderers.
McEnany's final piece of advice was to “expose the extremism” of the pro-abort side of the aisle.
“I’d love to see a presidential candidate look at Joe Biden and say, ‘President Biden, when does a baby feel pain?’ I don’t think he could answer that question,” McEnany said, adding, “Why isn’t every Democrat in America asked that question? If you want abortion ‘til birth, you should be asked that question.”
McEnany posed an interesting point. Think back to when MRC intern Julia Johnson asked Nancy Pelosi, “Is an unborn baby at 15 weeks a human being?” Not shockingly, Pelosi dodged the question.
To McEnany’s point, many people who support abortion either don’t have answers to the questions about abortion or refuse to answer them. Pointing that out is a way to “expose the extremism."
All in all, the fight for life is far from over, and McEnany seems to think these three steps may help establish a culture of life instead of a culture that celebrates abortion.
