Conservative firebrand and TheBlaze TV host Tomi Lahren appeared on ABC’s The View this past Friday, discussing Trump, terrorism, Russia, and other political issues. Most notably, however, Lahren admitted to The View’s audience that she is “pro-choice.”
Regarding abortion, Lahren said:
“I am pro-choice, and here’s why. I’m a constitutional [conservative], someone that loves the Constitution. I am someone that’s for limited government, so I can’t sit here and be a hypocrite and say that I’m for limited government but I think the government should decide what women do with their bodies… I’m for limited government. So stay out of my guns, and you can stay out of my body as well.”
Aside from the fact that “pro-choice” is a dishonest phrase to convey the pro-abortion position, Lahren displays an astounding ignorance of the Constitution and the philosophy of limited government.
Objectively speaking, the right to abortion does not exist in the constitution. The alleged right to abortion was invented by seven Supreme Court justices in Roe v. Wade (1973). The right to life, on the other hand, is declared in the Declaration of Independence and protected in the Constitution. Indeed, the right to life is the first inalienable right enshrined by the founders.
Lahren also grossly misunderstands the implications of the limited government philosophy. Limiting government does not require the abolition of government or provide the absolute freedom to do whatever we want with our bodies. In a society built upon the principles of limited government, the state still has an important role: upholding the inalienable rights of each of its citizens, beginning with the right to life.
As previously mentioned, the right to life is first among all rights. In fact, without the right to not be killed, the concept of inalienable rights ceases to exist. The right to speak freely, believe freely, bear arms, and all other fundamental rights depend on someone first being alive to exercise those rights. If the right to life can be taken from us, so can all the others.
For this reason, opposing abortion is foundational to limited government ideology. Legal abortion undermines the very principle of inalienable rights. Without inalienable rights, government growth is inevitable, effectively making limited government impossible. A government that strips human beings of the inalienable right to life is not a limited government. It is a tyrannical and violent government. Any constitutionalist would know that.
James Silberman is a guest contributor to the FPIW Blog. He is a pro-life activist from Gig Harbor, WA, and a student at Whitworth University.
