By Raimundo Rojas, Director, Outreach & Events
My family voted early in Florida this past week. I’ve wanted to vote in this election for the last four years, and I was looking forward to finally exercising my most significant responsibility as an American citizen.
We climbed into the car and drove to the Clerk of the Court with my 10-year-old grandson. He’d been begging his mom to let him fill in the oval circle next to President Trump’s name for weeks so he could honestly say he voted for him. There was a short line when we arrived. We received our ballots; my brother, daughter, and grandson were in tow, and I headed to our booths.
I opened the ballot—it’s a large one in Florida this year—for president, senate, congress, local elections, judge retention, two local bond issues, and six amendments to the Florida constitution—and stared at my choices.
President Trump and Senator Vance are at the top of the ticket, and Kamala Harris and Tim Walz appear just underneath. My eyes kept darting from name to name to name. I stared at them for the longest time. I’m the person people call to ask who to vote for, which judges to retain, and what amendments to approve, and I was frozen in place. I could have filled out that ballot with my eyes closed. But I just kept staring.
I kept thinking and even said aloud,
How is this election even close?”
Second, on the ballot, we have a woman who can’t articulate cogent points and has proven herself to honestly have “the IQ of a fence post.” Her running mate is an effete pathological liar whose tall tales have all but been debunked, and he excuses them away by describing himself as a “knucklehead.”
How is this election even close?
To be honest, Kamala Harris always takes an unconventional approach to interpreting the facts, transcending the pedestrian realm of logic and evidence. She weaves a tapestry of almost thoughts that hover tantalizingly close to coherence without ever entirely sticking the landing.
One can only marvel at the sheer audacity of such an intellectual high-wire act, balancing so precariously on the thin line between profound insight and utter nonsense. Unfortunately for her and all of us, nonsense is all she has.
How is this election even close?
Assume for a minute – and it’s a far-fetched idea – that all things in this election (other than the life issue) were equal. Let’s pretend this woman could, in fact, form complete sentences, that an original thought popped into her head on occasion, that her foreign and domestic policies were not disastrous. Pretending that she had personality, empathy, intellect, or charm, I would still ask myself:
How is this election even close?
When we focus on the most critical issue of the day – life itself – this woman and her running mate have nothing to offer but death.
How is this election even close?
Kamala Harris voted against the “Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act,” which would ensure that an infant born alive during an attempted abortion is afforded the same degree of medical care as any other newborn of the same gestational age. Her running mate, Tim Walz, legalized infanticide during his tenure as Governor of Minnesota.
These two individuals took the most inhumane and barbaric approach to treating babies who survive late-term abortion. Tim Walz’s body count is up to eight. Yes, under his watch, eight babies were left to die, lying on a cold gurney, shivering, crying, and gasping for air. This is who they are, and how the hell is this election even close?
Harris and Walz also support the “Women’s Health Protection Act,” a bill that would enshrine unlimited abortion until birth in federal law and do away with virtually all existing protections for unborn children and their mothers on both the federal and state levels, including parental involvement laws. They will argue and have argued that late-term abortions “aren’t a thing.” Really, what about all those babies mentioned above who have died under Walz’s infanticide order. Late abortions happen on healthy mothers with healthy babies. Harris and Walz truly believe those children are better off dead.
How is this election even close?
During his testimony at a Congressional hearing on late abortion, Dr. Anthony Levatino, a former abortionist, described a method of late abortion, “Once you’ve grasped something inside [the uterus], squeeze on the clamp to set the jaws and pull hard — really hard. You feel something let go, and out pops a fully formed leg about six inches long. Reach in again and grasp anything you can…and out pops an arm.” Harris and Walz do not flinch at this grotesque revelation – they defend it under the false banner of “choice.”
How is this election even close?
The stink of death will forever permeate this ticket. Harris also supports excluding parents from the process when a minor girl is given an abortion, wants to fund all abortions without limits, and advocates for military abortions. Harris was part of the team that suspended health regulations for the administration of chemical abortions, putting many women at risk. She rejects the science and refuses to accept that unborn babies aborted late in pregnancy suffer pain when they are dismembered piece by piece. This is outrageously callous, inhuman, and merciless.
How is this election even close?
Not to be outdone in his promotion of the barbaric, her running mate Walz and his policies are responsible for countless deaths of Minnesotans. Aside from supporting and implementing some of the most gruesome pro-abortion laws in the country, Walz’s disastrous COVID-19 response prioritized nursing home admissions for COVID-19 patients, leading to a record-breaking spike in elderly deaths.
As governor, Walz has eliminated parental involvement laws before a minor girl has an abortion, Walz repealed the Positive Alternatives Act, which provided essential support like housing and prenatal care to expecting mothers.
How is this election even close?
As I stood at the voting booth and looked at the Harris–Walz names, all I saw was death: dead babies, dead teenagers, and dead elderly COVID patients.
How is this election even close?
In contrast, the Trump/Vance ticket offers life, hope, and a promise for a future void of death and destruction. I stood there, and thought of all President Trump did for us to advance the cause of life during his term as president. These were the things that ruminated as I looked at their names on the ballot:
- Neil Gorsuch
- Brett Kavanaugh
- Amy Comey Barret
- He enacted an unprecedented expansion of the Mexico City Policy, which saved countless unborn lives.
- His appointments to key positions throughout his Department of State helped hold the line on the radical international pro-abortion agenda and, for once, helped pro-life NGOs beat them back.
- During his tenure at the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, and unlike any other Republican administration before him since Roe, the Trump administration, for the first time, referenced “voluntary and informed family planning” language and kept out the additional controversial and disastrous pro-abortion text.
- At the United Nations Commission on Population and Development, the Trump administration held firm to reject a document that ignored the sovereignty of UN member states.
- At the World Health Assembly, the Trump administration held the line on the pro-life position by informing the world at the World Health Assembly that abortion is not a method of family planning.
- At the G7, the Trump Administration kept abortion language out of the negotiated documents.
- The Trump administration worked tirelessly at the Organization of American States General Assemblies to defeat radical pro-abortion language.
- During negotiations of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) Humanitarian Resolution, the Trump administration worked closely with other member states to keep out radical pro-abortion language.
- Included Hyde Amendment-type language into the COVID-19 relief package so that these federal funds would not pay for abortions.
- President Trump cut off American dollars to the United Nations Population Fund due to the agency’s involvement in China’s forced abortion program.
- President Trump signed an executive order to protect babies who survive abortion attempts.
- President Trump created a Human Fetal Tissue Research Ethics Advisory Board, which rejected research proposals involving abortion-derived fetal tissue.
- President Trump held a private screening of the film, “Gosnell,” at the White House. The president was visibly moved and nonplussed by what occurred in the movie.
- President Trump was the first-ever president to attend the March for Life.
President Trump has also said, “We believe in the eternal truth that every child, born and unborn, is made in the Holy image of God. I will always defend the sacred right to life.”
How is this election even close?
I was startled by my grandson, who came up behind me to ask if I was finished. I realized I hadn’t filled in a single vote. I looked back and said, “Dude, give me a minute,” and he said, “C’mon, grandpa.”
And I did.
I proudly voted for Trump/Vance, Senator Rick Scott, and Congressman Gimenez Against the deadly Amendment 4 to retain those brave and extraordinary ladies serving on our State Supreme Court.
I finished, folded my ballot into the yellow folder, and fed it into the machine. I don’t know how this election is close, but I knew then that I had widened the gap for the most pro-life president we’ve ever had to win this election.
God be with us.
Editor’s note. You can find a comparison of President Trump’s and Vice President Harris’s positions on abortion at www.nrlc.org/uploads/records/