U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy—the longest-serving Democrat in the Senate—gave an impassioned defense of abortion. It… didn’t go as well as he planned.
Instead, Leahy expressed regret for prosecuting a case involving a Nazi abortionist from Auschwitz—and inadvertently building a pro-life case by explaining how the Nazis used abortion to exploit Jewish women, and cover up prison rape.
Oops.
During the Supreme Court nomination hearings for Judge Neil Gorsuch, Leahy brought up personal experience about the horrors of back-alley abortions before Roe v. Wade made it legal nationwide in 1973.
While he was state’s attorney in Vermont before Roe v. Wade, Leahy regretfully explained that he had to try cases where he “prosecuted somebody for procuring abortions—and these are the dark days I don’t want to go back to.”
Unfortunately for Leahy, the case he said he regretted prosecuting was Leahy v. Bartlett: a case where the person “procuring” the abortion had hired a former Nazi abortion doctor—who had learned her “craft” in concentration camps, giving Jewish women forced abortions after they had been raped by Nazi guards.
“When I brought it to trial, we found that the person doing the abortion was from Montreal,” Leahy added. “[At the trial,] I pointed out to the defense attorney that the evidence will show that she was trained to do these abortions working for the SS at Auschwitz so she could abort the women prisoners that they had impregnated so that they could keep on using those women that way before they put them in the gas chambers.”
Leahy’s story did not finish with a coherent point on why abortion was necessary.
But he did succeed in expressing his regret for prosecuting a case that involved a Nazi abortionist—and he succeeded in bringing up the uncomfortable fact that, throughout history, abortion had been used to kill and exploit “undesirable” people.
Pro-life activists had a field day with Leahy’s comments.
Jeanne Mancini, president of the influential pro-life group March for Life, said that Leahy’s story outlines exactly why so many women are pro-life:
“Senator Leahy just reaffirmed why abortion industry health regulations should not continue to be given a pass,” Mancini said. “As his account details, the practice of abortion has a long and violent history of exploiting women, and continues to do so for profit under the legal protection of Roe v. Wade.”
She added: “Horrific cases like the one described by Sen. Leahy reminds us of the need for the deep and unwavering desire to protect all human life that Judge Neil Gorsuch will undoubtedly bring to the Supreme Court bench.”
Leahy has not commented further on his controversial claims.
Originally published by American Action News.
