By
Jeffrey Folks
Kamala Harris recently came out with another shocking statement, and one that made it clear just where progressives stand on euthanasia, the right to life, and related issues. On July 14, speaking at Coppin State University in Baltimore,
Harris said that "when we invest in clean energy and electric vehicles and reduce population, more of our children can breathe clean air and drink clean water." The White House labeled Harris' statement a slip of the tongue, hours after Harris showed no indication of its being so. Based on her own lack of awareness, we can infer that she meant what she said.
The obvious question is
how to achieve a lower population, if that is one's goal. The left has long supported universal availability of contraception and abortion, including late-term abortion, funded at government or employer expense. Along with that, tax codes penalize married couples. And there is no place for nuclear families in liberal media, even as liberals do everything possible to champion transgenders and gays.
Beyond what might be called elective procedures, there are other possibilities. In the past, progressives supported forced sterilization, which was once legal in 32 states. And euthanasia, even of those who may not be capable of making a rational decision, is another procedure promoted by the left. Currently, right-to-die laws exist in nine states and Washington, D.C.
All of these are liberal jurisdictions: California, Colorado, Oregon, Vermont, New Mexico, Maine, New Jersey, Hawaii, and Washington State. Liberals support euthanasia to the point of legalizing it for a wide range of conditions. Most conservatives have reservations.
When Biden was vice president, he and Obama floated a policy of restricted care for senior citizens that would have amounted to euthanasia on a mass scale. Under Obama-Biden, Medicare and Medicaid would have withheld funding for some late-stage diseases, limiting treatment to palliative care only. As Obama's CMS director Donald Berwick
told Congress in 2011, "[t]he decision is not whether or not we will ration care ... the decision is whether we will ration with our eyes open." The policy of restricting late-stage care to palliative treatment would have "lowered population" in a hurry, as thousands of elderly patients would have died before their time.
It's important to note that Harris linked reduced population to other green "investments." The idea that abortion, euthanasia, and sterilization are "investments" is the product of a perverse and warped way of thinking. I don't believe that forcing Americans to spend tax revenues to murder children or eliminate senior citizens can be considered an "investment," as those on the left seem to do. I consider it criminal behavior.