Michigan Bishop Blasts Governor Whitmer’s Abortion Hype

A pro-life, anti-abortion and pro-family activist displays a rubber foetus during a "March
FILIPPO MONTEFORTE/AFP/Getty Images

Grand Rapids Bishop David J. Walkowiak has issued a statement slamming recent declarations by Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer that abortion is “life-sustaining.”

“Two persons enter an abortion clinic. Only one comes out. Abortion is not life-sustaining,” wrote Bishop Walkowiak on the diocesan website.

“We reiterate our complete and continuing commitment to support the health and well-being of all human life from conception to natural death,” the bishop asserted. And we will “never back down from our vigorous defense of human life at all stages of its existence.”

Earlier this month, Gov. Whitmer took part in a CNN podcast in which she was asked why she had exempted abortion clinics from her executive order shutting down all Michigan businesses and operations “that are not necessary to sustain or protect life.”

In response, Governor Whitmer made the startling assertion that abortion is “life sustaining.”

“A woman’s healthcare, her whole future, her ability to decide if and when she starts a family is not an election, it is a fundamental to her life,” she said.

Not long afterward, the Michigan Catholic Conference (MCC) called out Gov. Whitmer for her twisted logic in banning gardening and home improvement under the coronavirus lockdown while allowing abortions to continue unabated.

In a powerfully worded statement, the MCC — the official voice of the Catholic Church in Michigan —condemned Ms. Whitmer’s subservience to the abortion lobby, insisting that Michiganders need the governor’s sole focus “to be on the needs of the people of Michigan, not the demands of the abortion industry.”

The governor’s understanding of life issues has become “bifurcated and confusing,” the statement ran, while noting that during Ms. Whitmer’s political career she has “carried the banner for abortion on demand through all nine months of pregnancy.”

“Her comments indicate how easily candidates for higher office are pushed into a dark corner by the abortion industry. Joe Biden’s abdication of his forty-year support for the Hyde Amendment no doubt paved the way,” it said.

In his own statement, Bishop Walkowiak underscored the Catholic Church’s efforts to assist all families, while upholding the inviolable dignity of every human life.

“Well over 150,000 low-income mothers deliver their babies at Catholic hospitals each year, and tens of thousands of pregnant and parenting moms are helped each year through Catholic Charities programs and other agencies. We will continue to walk with moms in need,” he said.

“For those of us in Michigan who value life, the way forward remains the same,” he concluded. “We must let our elected representatives know our opinions on this matter and do all that we can to explain to them why the Church teaches about the sanctity of life as she does.”

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