Christine Flowers
Gov. Tom Wolf closed the schools in Pennsylvania for the rest of the academic year. That’s his prerogative, I suppose, and I know there are legions who support his decision. There are certainly those who think he has taken the right steps in keeping our children, teachers, administrative personnel and technical staff safe from the coronavirus.
I respect this view, although I disagree. Actually, saying I disagree understates my attitude. “Absolutely Reject,” “Laugh at,” “Show Incredulity,” and “Am Astounded By” are better descriptors.
But I frankly abhor the rank hypocrisy of a man who will close the schools but leave open the abortion clinics.
Wolf advocates for abortion rights so ferociously that he has frequently donned the pink vest of the “abortion clinic escort” to demonstrate just how much he believes that mothers have a fundamental right to terminate their pregnancies. Of course, the pro-abortion lobby favors the watered down language: “terminate pregnancy.” I prefer to be more intellectually honest and factually descriptive: “Kill her unborn child,” “destroy the life within her,” “play God” and “Show a callous disregard for humanity” are more authentic descriptors.
The fact that Wolf shows such concern for children that he completely disrupts their academic year based upon the possibility that they will be in harm’s way, and yet refuses to close abortion clinics and disrupt the business model of his beloved Planned Parenthood, constitutes schizophrenic thinking.
I am sure Wolf would defend his actions behind the semantic shield of differentiating that the unborn child is not actually a child at all. I have to believe this type of linguistic gymnastics helps those that support abortion rights look themselves in the mirror. In Wolf’s world and by his logic, he does not harm children by keeping abortion clinics open despite capriciously shutting down many necessary and productive facilities, including all others that provide elective medical procedures.
And yet, to anyone with an inquisitive mind, it really seems quite paradoxical that Wolf has continued to let abortionists terminate pregnancies pursuant to the logic that this is an “essential” procedure, even when the abortions are “elective,” and cannot be characterized in anyway under the “therapeutic” umbrella.
In other words, to obtain this elective procedure during the pandemic, women do not even need to allege that they need the abortion protect their health or life. In Pennsylvania, many people sit waiting, and suffering, until Wolf allows so-called non-essential medical treatment but women can freely terminate pregnancies without establishing that high standard of need, that “essential” nature of her request.
How ironic that a woman can’t get her hair or nails done in a salon, but she can terminate her pregnancy, in a state where she cannot now send her child to school to study. And the sad part is that there are many women, and the men who live with them, who find nothing particularly wrong or ghoulish with that scenario.
Wolf persists in pretending he cares about the welfare of the least among us, and even uses spiritual or religious references in telling us to care for one another. The hypocrisy of a man who continues to let women destroy their unborn babies, because he believes that this is a right vouchsafed them by the Constitution (which it is not, even though the Roe court corrupted that message) but who prattles on about how we need to keep our kiddies safe from harm is astounding. This duplicitous philosophy must be pointed out, especially when we are called on by our leaders to look deep into our hearts and consider the true nature of caring for our brothers and sisters.
So while I will concede that my friends who celebrate these school closures as health saving necessities might have their hearts in the right place, I will continue to believe that the governor who ordered those closures has played all of us for fools. He used a capricious and internally inconsistent standard in a constitutionally suspect Commonwealth-wide edict to promote his progressive agenda in the name of health.
That, I cannot forgive.
Christine Flowers is an attorney and a columnist for the Delaware County Daily Times, and can be reached at cflowers1961@gmail.com.