By Hunter Hines
Christian Action League
March 23, 2022
John Milton in Paradise Lost said, “For neither man nor angel can discern Hypocrisy, the only evil that walks Invisible, except to God alone.” Sometimes, however, hypocrisy can be quite visible, and when it is, it’s proper to call it out.
According to Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary, hypocrisy is “feigning to be what one is not or to believe what one does not: behavior that contradicts what one claims to believe or feel.”
This definition is certainly applicable to a tweet by Governor Roy Cooper about children with Down Syndrome, which he posted on Tuesday, World Down Syndrome Day. In his tweet, the Governor said:
“Our State is strongest when all people have the opportunity to achieve their potential. As we celebrate #DownSyndromeAwarnessDay, it’s important that we continue our work to make North Carolina a more inclusive place for all.”
“I wondered if the Governor would make a statement about this special day. It seems he would have done better to have remained silent about it. But the audacity of this Governor, the Leftist who hypocritically feigns to be a Centrist, never ceases to amaze me,” said Rev. Mark Creech, executive director of the Christian Action League. “This time, he tweets about being inclusive of children with Down Syndrome, but he vetoed a bill passed last year by the General Assembly that would have prohibited the abortion of an unborn child based on a disability such as Down Syndrome. Pray-tell what’s inclusive about discriminating against children with Down Syndrome by allowing selective abortions to destroy them? The tweet adds insult to injury. Cruel, I tell you! Cruel, discriminatory, and grossly hypocritical!”
Last year, HB 453 – Human Life Non-Discrimination Act/No Eugenics, championed by Rep. Dean Arp (R, Union) and Sen. Joyce Krawiec (R-Davie), passed the Senate 27-20 and the House 67-42. The legislation proposed:
“No person shall perform or attempt to perform an abortion upon a woman in this State unless the physician who is scheduled to perform or attempt to perform the abortion has confirmed before the abortion that the woman is not seeking an abortion because of any of the following:
“(1) The actual or presumed race or racial makeup of the unborn
child.
“(2) The sex of the unborn child.
“(3) The presence or presumed presence of Down syndrome.
“A person shall not intentionally or knowingly perform, induce, or attempt to perform or induce an abortion of an unborn child if the abortion is being sought because of the actual or presumed race or sex of the unborn child or because of the presence or presumed presence of Down Syndrome.”
But Governor Cooper vetoed this measure, arguing it was unconstitutional and would intrude on the woman/doctor-patient relationship.
World Syndrome Day is a global awareness day to draw attention to the need for improving the quality of life for people with Down Syndrome. It calls for equal access to education, employment, and health.
This week, “Fox and Friends” featured Rachel Campos-Duffy, whose child, Valentina, has Down Syndrome. Campos-Duffy, who is also host to the weekend edition of “Fox and Friends,” told Ainsley Earhardt that approximately 1 in every 800 births worldwide is a child with Down Syndrome. But it’s difficult to determine this number with absolute certainty because so many people are frightened when they get the diagnosis.
Campos-Duffy said organizations like the World Health Organization (WHO) and many doctors are misinformed and scare women. “So, they end up getting abortions instead of realizing that these are humans and they are wonderful and blessings to their parents and families,” she said.
Campos-Duffy, raised in a strict Catholic home and has 9 children, added that her Down Syndrome daughter, Valentina, has a chromosomal variation like other Down Syndrome children. “She has one chromosome more than my other kids,” she said. “She’s just as human. She’s just as precious.” She said that the many perceived negatives about Down Syndrome children lead to discrimination and abortion.
“In places like Iceland, for example, other countries, China, you don’t even see children with Down Syndrome because they claim that they’ve cured it,” said Campos-Duffy. “But they haven’t; instead, they have literally exterminated the population.”
She concluded by telling Earhardt how glad she was to have the opportunity to speak about Down Syndrome “because of the way we are literally exterminating, Nazi-style, an entire class of people, and it’s totally discriminatory.”
What was that again, Governor? “Our State is strongest when all people have the opportunity to achieve their potential… it’s important that we continue our work to make North Carolina a more inclusive place for all.”
Hypocrisy can foster injustices, but it is more often simply a reflection of them – one of which is hailing World Down Syndrome Day but discriminating against those with the disability even unto death.
As Mark McKinnon said, “Hypocrisy is the scarlet letter in politics.”
In the Spring of 2022, the North Carolina General Assembly may attempt a veto override of HB 453.