Christian leader Franklin Graham criticized Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe for prioritizing money above babies’ lives this week after the governor claimed a bill to ban late-term abortions would hurt business in his state.
“When we are worried more about our state image and making money than about protecting the lives of babies in their mothers’ wombs, it’s obvious we have a big problem,” Graham wrote on Facebook Friday in response to McAuliffe.
Virginia lawmakers currently are considering a bill to prohibit late-term abortions after 20 weeks when strong scientific evidence indicates that unborn babies can feel pain. McAuliffe quickly responded with a promise to veto the bill, claiming it would hurt the state’s image and businesses.
The Associated Press reported:
The General Assembly’s 2017 legislative session starts next week and McAuliffe does not typically comment on proposed legislation until after it passes both chambers. But the governor said he needed to make clear to companies looking to invest in Virginia that the legislation had no hope of passage.
“I can’t sit back and have that sitting out the same time I am traveling the globe recruiting businesses to Virginia,” McAuliffe said, adding that he is going on an important recruiting trip this weekend. “If there’s something that would be damaging toward business, and to our image around the country and the globe, I’ll veto it, you bet I will.”
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Graham said McAuliffe has his priorities “backwards” and human lives are of much greater value than money.
“Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe says he will veto legislation banning abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy because he says such a ‘socially divisive’ proposal hurts the state’s image. Wow. When we are worried more about our state image and making money than about protecting the lives of babies in their mothers’ wombs, it’s obvious we have a big problem. Do some people really not understand what abortion is?” Graham wrote.
The bill has the potential to save many unborn babies’ lives from painful, late-term abortions. There were at least 5,770 late-term abortions at or after 21 weeks of pregnancy in 2013 in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Another approximate 8,150 abortions took place between 18 weeks and 20 weeks, the CDC reports.
Fifteen states already have Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection laws in place to ban abortions after 20 weeks on unborn babies, and several more states have introduced bills in their 2017 legislative sessions.
Two states, Georgia and Idaho, face legal challenges to their laws, but 13 states have their laws in effect, according to the National Right to Life Committee.
ACTION: Contact the governor here.
