Washington Post Columnist Suggests Baby Formula Shortage Justifies Abortion

Poor attempts at justifying abortion are bound to get tired and repetitive after a half-century of lies. So, perhaps it’s not surprising that some on the left are trotting out a new one by trying to exploit the current baby formula shortage.

Washington Post columnist Monica Hesse writes:

With particularly dystopian flair, the formula shortage came to a head around the same time that a draft opinion leaked from the Supreme Court that would overturn Roe v. Wade. On one hand, women would be forced to birth children. But on the other hand, once those children arrive, there might not be food to feed them.

The old political adage, “Never let a crisis go to waste” comes to mind here.

Babies should be aborted so they won’t later starve? Yes, many stores are currently sold out of baby formula – but the government-made problem will be short-lived. While many moms are anxious, and there have been reports of two children being hospitalized, help is on the way. Of course, the “abort to avoid starvation” argument is just another version of the specious argument that babies born into low-income areas are unfairly being relegated to a tragic life of poverty.

According to Friday’s Wall Street Journal:

Politicians are scrambling to pacify mothers angry about the baby formula shortage, but the one thing they won’t do is look in the mirror. Fixing the shortage requires fixing the government policies that helped to create it. 

The shortage began after Abbott Laboratories shut down a plant in Michigan after four infants who consumed formula made at the facility fell seriously ill. Abbott controls about 42% of the U.S. market, and the other three large manufacturers (Perrigo, Nestle and Mead Johnson) haven’t been able to increase production fast enough to compensate. Ergo, empty shelves.

The Journal’s editorial board goes on to suggest that it’s the government’s high tariffs on imported formula that are exacerbating the shortage. These excessive rates have created a monopoly for U.S.-based companies – and left families vulnerable in the event of the current domestic challenges.

The government stepping in to help fix the formula shortage is the equivalent of an arsonist starting a fire – and then claiming credit for helping douse the flames.

But the Post’s Hesse reveals her real beef isn’t with the companies who make the formula – it’s with the politicians (mostly men, she notes) who she feels don’t understand what it takes to carry, deliver and care for a child. She writes: 

The root problem isn’t a domestic supply chain issue, either of formula or of babies. The root problem is that too many of the people whom we elect to power are shielded from the mess and stress of reproduction and motherhood. 

In other words, “No man would ever be opposed to abortion if he knew what I know.”

It’s true that men can never experience the pain or physical challenges associated with pregnancy and motherhood. But that doesn’t mean I can’t know that abortion is murder. And because it’s abortion, it’s also wrong. And no pain, stress or inconvenience a woman may endure will ever justify ending the life of a baby.

The arrogance of the pro-abortion crowd, though, appears limitless. Absent from their arguments is any acknowledgement of the pain or challenges fathers experience with parenthood. Motherhood can be difficult, but fatherhood can be, too. But they also don’t seem to realize that by championing abortion, they’re encouraging and even inviting irresponsibility in men.

Ms. Hesse is perhaps most dismissive with the suggestion that women who find themselves in an unplanned pregnancy should carry their baby to term and then consider making an adoption plan. Again, she finds this to be the product of ignorance:

“You have no idea,” she writes. “No idea how hard pregnancy is on a body.”

Only millions of women do know – and yet still understand and appreciate it’s not just about them – it’s about the baby, and what’s best for the child in the long run. All of us adoptive parents are eternally grateful for the selfless and sacrificial women who looked outside and beyond themselves and into the future on behalf of their child.

Let’s hope the lessons learned during this baby formula shortage will be long-lasting and that changes will be made to prevent it from happening again. But just like the formula shortage is no excuse for abortion, let’s also pray more and more people will recognize that no crisis like poverty or the prospect of an unplanned pregnancy should ever justify ending the life of an innocent baby.

Photo from Shutterstock.