When Governor Andy Beshear (D-Ky.) steps up to the podium for his daily press briefings, there's one death toll he doesn't announce. There's no county-by-county map, colored in shades of red, telling people how many lives abortion has taken since March. If there were, his state would be horrified to know that they've lost 240 people to coronavirus, and more than double that -- 561 -- to another sickness: the liberal hypocrisy keeping his clinics running.
Maybe to Governor Beshear, 561 babies doesn't seem like much. But it's enough to fill up both of Kentucky's children's hospitals -- with 90 more to spare. And these casualties, unlike the thousands we can't comprehend, were entirely preventable. All the governor had to do, State Senator Whitney Westerfield (R) insisted, was follow his own orders. "This is the same governor, who for the last six weeks has had... a [policy] in place prohibiting... no elective medical procedures. [It's] shut down everything from getting your teeth cleaned to getting cancer surgery. But [it] hasn't shut down the elective abortion procedures that are happening at the EMW Women's Clinic in Louisville every single day."
By now, Whitney points out, Kentucky has blown past that 561 total from March 1st to mid-April, thanks to an administration that is more beholden to Planned Parenthood than his state's own safety. "The governor has had weeks and weeks to shut them down to enforce his own order on them. And he hasn't done it."
Of course, all of this is par for the extreme course for Beshear, who just put himself on the record as part of the radical fringe supporting legal infanticide. When Sarah Perry asked Whitney on "Washington Watch" if he was surprised by the veto of his born-alive bill, the state senator said frankly, "Not at all. He's been hostile to [unborn] and innocent life since before he was governor. He was the [attorney general] before that, and he demonstrated on a regular basis his lack of concern for unborn lives and those in this case that are just born an innocent. And wasn't at all surprised."
What is surprising, at least to some, is how easily Beshear dismissed such a consensus issue. This isn't just a bill that passed unanimously in the state senate, there wasn't a single person who spoke out in opposition! Over in the General Assembly, it got another 70 votes, reflecting the incredible groundswell of support throughout Kentucky to give abortion survivors medical care. And what did the governor say? He's "not doing divisive issues" right now.
Westerfield could only shake his head. "I mean, we deal with divisive issues -- [try to] find a state legislature that doesn't. [But] this isn't one of those things. When you've got people from the Left and Right that are all in agreement on a policy, who in the world could possibly be opposed to making sure that a child born alive... [has] medical care? There is no way you can square his sanctimonious, self-righteous [statements that] we're doing all that we can on COVID-19 -- but then, in the same breath, with the stroke of a pen and a flippant one paragraph veto message, claim that this is divisive. It's very disappointing, very frustrating and entirely predictable."
For now, Westerfield and the rest of the state have no choice but to wait until the 2021 session. Since Beshear waited until the legislature recessed to veto, that's the only alternative. But this isn't the end of it, Whitney vows. "I absolutely plan to file it on day one of the 2021 session." Until then, every state can learn from Kentucky. First all of, to pray for their governors. And then, to get involved. Elections matter, as anyone living under Beshear's administration knows.
"Hold accountable the state representatives or the senators that you have and make sure that they're going to stand up for life when they get there in January," Westerfield urged. "Don't be sitting on the sideline. It's a weird season right now, obviously, because of the pandemic. You're not going to see candidates knocking on doors. And then we're certainly not all going to fish fries ever Saturday night like we usually would do on a campaign trail. But that doesn't mean that we shouldn't get out and vote for this November."
