Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Fang Fang) on Monday unveiled a demagogic new campaign video that is designed to heighten Leftist hysteria about the overturning of Roe v. Wade and the prospect of some states outlawing abortion. Swalwell captioned the video: “MAGA Republicans want women arrested for having an abortion. This is what that looks like. #LockHerUp”
This plays into the Left’s most paranoid fantasies about the “radical right” and the rise of “fascism,” but as Daily Signal reporter Mary Margaret Olohan pointed out, “This has never happened. But this is what it looks like when the Biden DOJ shows up at the home of a pro-life activist and arrests him in front of his screaming children. That has happened multiple times now.” Exactly. The Swalwell abortion appeal is the exact obverse of what’s really happening in America today and ignores the real source of contemporary fascism: Swalwell and his colleagues.
MAGA Republicans want women arrested for having an abortion. This is what that looks like. #LockHerUp pic.twitter.com/YUD0swW8DE
— Eric Swalwell (@ericswalwell) October 18, 2022
Swalwell’s video is the very definition of psychological manipulation. It begins with a father feeding a baby at the dinner table as a piano meanders sentimentally in the background. As Dad makes num-num-num sounds to encourage the happy baby to eat, the baby’s older sister, who looks to be about eight, says exasperatedly, “You’re weird.” Mom, brimming with affection, agrees happily: “He is weird. But cute.” Husband looks up from his baby-feeding duties, says, “Awww,” and the couple kisses, as the girl, clearly pleased and fascinated, keeps up her act by exclaiming, “Gross!”
Subtext: women who have had abortions are as American as apple pie, benign, normal, un-green-haired, un-tattooed, un-enraged, un-screaming, un-hateful. Why, they’re just like you and me, or rather, just like Ozzie and Harriet: benign, loving, kind, and above all, family-oriented. All those morbidly obese women with hair dyed unnatural colors and obscene slogans on their t-shirts? Forget ’em. The true face of abortion is just like your face.
This is, in other words, pure propaganda, and it gets worse. For at that moment, this idyllic scene is interrupted by blue-and-red flashing lights shining through the curtains and loud, insistent knocks on the door. Hubby asks, “What the hell?” which is a bit out of sync with the Father-Knows-Best vibe, but after all, it is a crisis moment. Wife opens the door to reveal two solemn cops, who might as well be holding “Defund the Police” signs.
One of them says: “Mary Anderson? I have a warrant for your arrest.” Stunned and baffled hubby asks: “Arrest for what?” Po-faced cop continues: “Penal Code 243 violation: unlawful termination of a pregnancy.” Husband recoils: “You gotta be kidding me!” Wife stammers: “That is, that is my personal business.” The officer says: “That’s for the courts to decide, ma’am. Your medical records have been subpoenaed, and Dr. Lander’s already in custody.” As she says, “You can’t just—” the cop continues unperturbed: “You will have to submit to a physical examination.”
Related: Democrats Gambled (and Lost) on Abortion Messaging
At that point, all hell breaks loose. Husband steps toward the cops, saying, “No one’s touching my wife!” They draw their guns and order him to get back. The kids scream in terror as the cops order the woman to turn around and put her hands behind her back. “We’re just enforcing the law here,” says the cop, as the screen goes black and we see, “Elections Have Consequences” and an appeal to voters to save the sacrifices to Moloch. We see one last glimpse of the woman in the back of the police car, muttering “Please don’t do this.”
It’s terrifying, all right. But it’s utter fiction. As Olohan noted, this has never happened. What’s more, not one Republican or major pro-life advocate has called for the arrest of women who get abortions. What has happened quite recently, however, is that Old Joe Biden’s appallingly corrupt FBI arrested pro-life activist Mark Houck in a scenario that was quite a bit more terrifying than the one imagined in Swalwell’s video.
As PJM’s Paula Bolyard reported, the feds carried out “a SWAT raid on the family home at 7:05 a.m. According to [Houck’s wife] Ryan-Marie’s account, there were 25-30 agents in 15 cars. They surrounded the house with rifles in firing position, and ‘started pounding on the door and yelling for us to open it.’” Houck’s children were screaming in terror, just like in Swalwell’s video, but for real.
And just to emphasize that the action against Houck wasn’t a one-off, the following week, the FBI carried out a similar raid at the home of a 73-year-old pro-life activist, Chester Gallagher. If Eric Swalwell is worried about federal overreach, he must have denounced the raids on Houck and Gallagher, no? Of course, he didn’t. His concern is only that the Left’s agenda be advanced, including its maniacal support for abortion without any restrictions. His concern for unjustifiable law enforcement raids on peaceful, loving families ends where that Leftist agenda begins.
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