Vice-presidential debates are often the political equivalent of a halftime show at a sporting event: You might watch them, but they aren’t the main spectacle. This year’s debate between Vice President Mike Pence and Senator Kamala Harris feels different, especially in the wake of President Trump’s hospitalization and enduring worries about 77-year-old Biden’s fitness. Voters want to know who Harris is, and where she stands on crucial issues such as abortion and the Supreme Court.
For pro-life voters, this debate is key, as Joe Biden has been avoiding discussion of abortion. Once upon a time, he was a pro-life politician. He even partnered with March for Life to lobby for a Human Life Amendment banning all abortions. But he later realized he couldn’t lead the Democratic ticket unless he shed his pro-life position, so he “evolved.” Most recently, he dropped his support of the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits taxpayer funding of abortion, and also vowed to continue prosecuting the Little Sisters of the Poor unless they paid for abortifacients.
So what can those who respect life expect from a Biden administration? The truth is found in the positions of his opportunistic running mate, Senator Harris. On Wednesday, she should be quizzed and made to take a clear stand on issues that Biden has dodged, including abortion and court-packing.
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In September, Senator Harris bragged on a video call about “a Harris administration, together with Joe Biden as the president of the United States.” Days later, at a campaign event, Biden also talked of a Harris/Biden administration. Clearly, Harris would have more power than a typical vice president, making it especially critical for the American people to know where she stands on important issues.
No matter how you slice it, electing Biden and Harris would mean four years in which the unborn are under relentless attack. Unlike Biden, who changed his position on abortion out of political expediency, Harris has used her positions to further the abortion industry and hurt the weak and vulnerable. As California’s attorney general, she took an extremely aggressive approach to this issue, attacking pro-life pregnancy-care centers and citizen journalists looking to expose the barbarism of Planned Parenthood. This fealty to the abortion lobby continued after she was elected to the U.S. Senate, so much so that after she was named as Biden’s running mate, Planned Parenthood spent six figures on an ad proclaiming her “our reproductive health champion for vice president.”
Harris’s record has made it clear that if she’s elected vice president, no pro-life policy will be safe. She supports using the power of the federal government to overturn hundreds of state laws protecting the unborn and women. Laws that ban taxpayer funding of abortion, mandate ultrasounds prior to an abortion, require parental consent for minors seeking abortions, and ensure strong oversight of abortionists and abortion facilities would all be targeted.
Joe Biden curried favor with Democrats a few weeks ago by vowing to bring the civil-rights division of the Justice Department into the White House. The move was explained as a way to focus on the issue of racism, but it could be used to advance the interests of the abortion lobby. Alexis McGill Johnson, the president of Planned Parenthood, has made it clear that a Biden/Harris administration would be expected to blunt the implementation of restrictive state laws through Justice Department review, using the Voting Rights Act as a model — something Senator Harris herself has proposed.
Both Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have intentionally avoided questions about “packing” the Supreme Court to achieve their desired political outcomes. But Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has vowed that “nothing is off the table” if his caucus wins back the Senate and Biden becomes president — and Senate Democrats are planning to eliminate the legislative filibuster as a means of packing the courts, ensuring taxpayer funding of abortion, and eliminating state and federal protections for the unborn.
In short, Biden and Harris seek to set up an enduring empire at the expense of the unborn and the Constitution. Wednesday night will be our chance to hold Harris accountable for her extreme views. She must be asked whether she plans to unconstitutionally repeal state restrictions on abortion, silence opposing voices, and pack the Supreme Court to ensure partisan outcomes. When the stakes are this high, anything less than a thorough, tough questioning just won’t do.
LifeNews Note: Jeanne Mancini is President of March for Life. This article originally appeared at National Review.
