The administration of President Donald Trump relies on its white Evangelical base to keep its support consistently hovering around 40 percent.
In keeping with this, President Donald Trump often invokes anti-abortion values he claims to hold dear. He's falsely claimed that Democrats are determined to rip babies from their mothers' wombs and that parents often discuss with their doctors whether or not to keep the baby...after the baby is born.
These claims are patently false, but they rile up the base.
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos seems to be playing right along in promoting abortion hysteria, if a recent speech is any indication.
In a speech at Colorado Christian University on Wednesday night, DeVos compared the fight against abortion to the fight for abolition.
Invoking Abraham Lincoln, DeVos said:
"[Lincoln], too, contended with the 'pro-choice' arguments of his day. They suggested that a state's 'choice' to be slave or to be free had no moral question in it...Lincoln was right about the slavery 'choice' then, and he would be right about the life 'choice' today. Because as it's been said: Freedom is not about doing what we want. Freedom is about having the right to do what we ought."
DeVos also claimed that, as with slavery, a majority of Americans believe abortion is morally wrong.
This is false. According to a 2017 Pew Research poll, only 48 percent of people believe abortion is morally wrong. Furthermore, 61 percent in a 2019 survey said abortion should be legal in all or most cases.
Twitter didn't let DeVos's tactless comparison go unchecked.
Despite constant missteps, DeVos is one of the few Trump administration officials who have been there since his inauguration.
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