California’s governor claims to be a Catholic “man of faith.” But he has a viciously anti-Christian agenda for America.
Part 3. Abortion Advocacy Taken to Demonic New Depths
It is certainly scandalous, in every sense of the word, for any Catholic politician to promote a supposed “right” to abortion.
But in September 2022, Gavin Newsom took this outrage to a far more shocking extreme: he launched a billboard campaign to promote abortion using the Biblical words of Christ.
Using leftover campaign funds, the governor bought ad space in pro-life-leaning states like Oklahoma and Mississippi. It was bad enough for Newsom’s billboards to proclaim:
“NEED AN ABORTION? CALIFORNIA IS READY TO HELP.”
Still worse, however, was the quotation from the words of Our Lord Jesus Christ – placed on the billboard just beneath the internet address for California’s official abortion access website.
“Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no greater commandment than these – Mark 12:31,” it read.
This was deemed “unconscionable” by the California Catholic Conference, and a “reprehensible act of gross blasphemy” by a leading Protestant pastor. A statement from the Catholic League summed it up best, calling the billboard campaign “demonic.”
Newsom, meanwhile, blasted out images of the billboards on his social media feed.
“To any woman seeking an abortion in these anti-freedom states: CA will defend your right to make decisions about your health,” he posted.
Besides committing extremely grave sin with this ad campaign, it seems Newsom also committed a serious crime under Catholic canon law.
In a commentary on the canonical consequences of abortion, Fr. William P. Saunders states that “any Catholic accomplice in the act of procuring an abortion, even though not specifically mentioned [in Canon 1397 §2], receives the same penalty of automatic excommunication.”
As Fr. Saunders explains, “an accomplice is one who assists in such a way that the heinous act would not have been committed without his assistance.”
“Therefore, the doctor who performs the abortion, the nurse who assists in the procedure, the boyfriend who encourages the abortion, and the parent who pays for the abortion – all are accomplices, guilty of the act, and thereby receive the just penalty.”
By advertising and offering California’s “help” to those unable to kill a child elsewhere, Governor Newsom appears to meet the Church’s definition of an accomplice to the act.
Unfortunately, it seems no Catholic authority ever pointed out this fact in any public statement. That would have been appropriate, given what hellish new depths the governor had sunk to with this form of abortion activism.
Clearly, Newsom’s abortion advocacy is not merely a matter of falling into line with his political party or giving in to pressure from activists.
Rather, as with his crusade for same-sex marriage in years past (something he called “a core belief in my soul”), Newsom seems driven by a personal desire to promote abortion as part of his warped view of “freedom.”
Few figures demonstrate the drift of America’s political Left – away from the Clinton-era language of “safe, legal, and rare,” and toward today’s “#ShoutYourAbortion” attitude – better than Gavin Newsom.
Well before the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade with the Dobbs decision, Newsom established the “California Future of Abortion Council” in September 2021 and said the state would “be a sanctuary” for killing the unborn.
“We’re proud to have enacted some of the strongest reproductive freedom measures in the nation, and we’re proud to have helped advance the California Future of Abortion Council,” Newsom states on the council’s homepage. California, he says, “continues to lead the nation in protecting such fundamental rights.”
As he signed a set of 12 pro-abortion bills in September 2022, Newsom made a striking choice of words, saying: “It’s more important than ever to fight like hell for those who need these essential services.”
He has likened his fight for abortion to “hell” on other occasions as well. One might ask whether this reflects a guilty conscience.
While nothing tops the governor’s blasphemous use of Christ’s words to promote abortion, there was a similar perversity in his attempt to claim the mantle of being “pro-life.”
In a May 2022 speech, the abortion extremist claimed his support for various liberal policies was based on a “pro-life agenda.”
He argued that items like “gun safety laws” and “after-school programs” were the real pro-life policies, accusing the “folks that claim to be pro-life” of hypocrisy for “cutting those programs.”
Clearly, Newsom loves stealing his opponents’ terminology and fundamentally distorting its meaning. In this case, it is in the service of an absurd argument that would – if applied consistently – make every aspect of life into a state responsibility.
If every issue involving “life” – in any sense of the word – automatically called for government action, there would be no end to the state’s role in our lives. If a government sought to do everything that would support or protect “life” in this broad sense, there would be no limit on either its obligations or its power. It should be obvious that this would be neither possible nor desirable.
In reality, of course, not every aspect of life is a responsibility for the government, and politics is filled with practical questions on which the Church gives us principles rather than precise answers. In these areas, we can debate the merits of various public policies, or other approaches, as long as they involve real moral values and authentic rights.
The legal protection of the unborn, however, is not subject to debate in this way. The official Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church states that “the right to life, from conception to its natural end,” is “the condition for the exercise of all other rights.” Laws that allow abortion are explicitly condemned as violating “the fundamental contents of faith and morals.”
The same text makes it clear that abortion is not a right in any sense. Rather, it is “a horrendous crime and constitutes a particularly serious moral disorder; far from being a right, it is a sad phenomenon that contributes seriously to spreading a mentality against life, representing a dangerous threat to a just and democratic social coexistence.”
All of this is lost on Gavin Newsom, who insults the intelligence and moral sense of countless Americans with his claim that “California is a pro-life state.”
In September 2023, his office continued to tout California’s “nation-leading efforts” for the pro-abortion cause, as the governor signed nine more bills in the same vein.
In words that also showed the ascendancy of transgender ideology, California’s “First Partner” Jennifer Siebel Newsom was quoted in the official press release – stressing the importance of the state’s abortion-related “protections for women, birthing people, and providers.”
Read Part 4 here.
About the Author: Benjamin Mann is a Byzantine Catholic and has written for several publications including Catholic News Agency, Catholic Exchange, and Real Clear Religion.
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