There may come a time, in a century or two, when the opening months of the Biden Administration will be funny. By then, none of those who have suffered the loss of freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution, those who thought it the government’s job to allow us to be secure in our homes, and those who believed the government has no business getting involved in paying for abortions will long be dead. How will history look at Biden’s pick for our nation’s deputy budget director, Shalanda Young, and her comments in a written statement saying government funded abortions are necessary for “racial justice”?

And why in the world is someone hoping to join the budget office opining on abortion? Shouldn’t she be talking about fiscal responsibility? Cutting the pork from the budget? Those are just a few of the questions Sen. Rand Paul asked a week ago.

And what is it with Biden (or his handlers) that they nominated not only Neera Tanden as director of OMB but Young as the deputy budget director? I’m not sure either of them understand what the word “budget” means.

According to her written statement released yesterday, Young says the Administration is committed to ending the Hyde Amendment. Young went on to say doing so is part of Biden’s “commitment to providing comprehensive health care for all women.”

So what does the Hyde Amendment say?

Passed by Congress in 1976, the Hyde Amendment excludes abortion from the comprehensive health care services provided to low-income people by the federal government through Medicaid.  Congress has made some exceptions to the funding ban, which have varied over the years.  At present, the federal Medicaid program mandates abortion funding in cases of rape or incest, as well as when a pregnant woman’s life is endangered by a physical disorder, illness, or injury.

I don’t know about you, but that sounds pretty damned fair to me. If you are on Medicaid and are raped, you can have an abortion. If a pregnancy occurs due to an incestual relationship, you can have an abortion. Your life is in danger? You can have an abortion. What you can’t have is an abortion as a means of birth control.

At least not on the government’s dime.

In other words, the individual bears the responsibility for their actions. Isn’t that how it should be?

Not according to Biden and Young, among others.

The Equality Act (and don’t you just love how the Dems are doing all they can to hide the true impact of a bill behind uplifting names?) will rewrite the laws on sex, gender and rape. It will add sexual orientation and gender identification to protected classes. The proverbial can of worms this will open should worry all of us. Not that the Dems or the current occupant of the Oval Office care.

But it will also “in effect make it illegal for physicians to decline to perform an abortion.” I guess this shouldn’t surprise anyone. After all, courts have ruled a bakery can’t decline to bake a cake based on the religions beliefs of the owners. So why should we expect doctors–or their staffs–to be treated any better?

Add to that the fact  the provisions of the bill, if passed, “could be read to require taxpayer funding of elective abortions” and you see where this is going. The government will be expected to pay for abortions being used as a means of birth control.

And that’s where POTUS and Young come into play.

Young made no bones in her written statement that she believes government funded abortions is “a matter of economic and racial justice.” She went on to say she sees the provisions of the Hyde Amendment as problematical because of the amendment’s “impact on women of color.”

Further, eliminating the Hyde Amendment is a matter of economic and racial justice because it most significantly impacts Medicaid recipients, who are low-income and more likely to be women of color.”

First of all, are these women incapable of taking personal responsibility for their actions? We aren’t talking about victims of rape or incest. We aren’t talking about women whose health is endangered by the pregnancy. We are talking about elective abortions. In other words, birth control.

Second, is she (and isn’t the Administration) selling these women short by assuming they need the government to hold their hands in this manner?

If Young really wants the job–or if she is seriously being considered to replace Tanden as the nominee to head OMB–perhaps she should have considered her words more carefully. Abortion is one of those topics that brings out strong opinions on both sides of the aisle and, among centrist Democrats and Republicans, saying the government should pay for elective abortions is akin to lighting a match and tossing it into dry tender.

Besides:

Shalanda Young’s radical support for abortion on demand ignores the devastating toll of abortion on black communities: an abortion rate four times higher than that of their white counterparts,” Susan B. Anthony List President Marjorie Dannenfelser said. “This isn’t justice — it is a profound injustice. The fact is, the Hyde Amendment saves 60,000 lives every year.”

The government shouldn’t be footing the bill for any elective surgery. It certainly shouldn’t be invovled in birth control. We aren’t a socialist state–yet. Which is something Young and the current Administration seems to have forgotten.

Here’s hoping the Senate stands as firm on Young as it did on Tanden.

Featured Image by Jeff Jacobs from Pixabay. Creative Commons 2.0 license.