VICTOR JOECKS: Despite coronavirus shutdown, abortion providers still killing babies

In an effort to stop coronavirus, Gov. Steve Sisolak has ordered Nevadans to stay at home and nonessential businesses to close. He’s allowing abortion clinics, however, to remain open.

“Please join us in staying home for Nevada,” Sisolak said on Wednesday, after issuing a formal stay-at-home order. “If we all do this, we can get through this quicker and safer, with less casualties.”

That directive comes three weeks after Sisolak ordered nonessential businesses to close. That resulted in more than 160,000 Nevadans filing an initial claim for unemployment in the past two weeks. Based on February’s labor force data, that could put Nevada’s unemployment rate around 14 percent. For context, Nevada’s unemployment rate after the 2008 financial crisis peaked at 13.7 percent. Nevadans are soon going to be remembering the Great Recession as the good old days.

The sacrifice is necessary, Sisolak insists, because of the great danger posed by coronavirus. Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, estimated that 100,000 to 200,000 people could die from the virus. As of this writing, more than 1,450 Nevadans have tested positive for coronavirus.

The threat is real. Just not real enough for Sisolak to force abortion providers to shut their doors. Sisolak’s list of essential businesses includes health care clinics. It’s quite the euphemism to describe sticking scissors in the back of an unborn baby’s skull and vacuuming out her brains as health care. But abortion providers fall within that definition.

In response to phone calls, three Las Vegas-area abortion providers confirmed this week that they are open. They also said their staffs had the personal protective equipment, such as gloves and surgical masks, needed to perform abortions.

On its website, the Birth Control Care Center had a pop-up addressing what it was doing to limit exposure to coronavirus. “The safety of our patients during office visits is our highest priority,” it said. If patient safety was its highest priority, it wouldn’t be performing a procedure in which success means the death of a preborn baby.

Killing children pays well. Abortionists don’t want a global pandemic to slow down their cash flow. That same clinic charges up to $2,600 for an abortion. At the A-Z Women’s Center, an abortion at 21 weeks costs eight times more than its highest non-abortion service. No matter how bad the coronavirus outbreak gets, no other business is as deadly as an abortion clinic. But Sisolak is allowing them to remain open.

There’s another thing to think about. Las Vegas-area nurses and doctors are worried about having enough gloves and surgical masks to keep themselves safe while they care for coronavirus patients. At the same time, abortionists are using those scarce items to end human life.

It doesn’t have to be this way. Governors in several other states have stopped abortion as part of their states’ response to the pandemic. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott directed licensed health care facilities to postpone elective surgeries, including abortions. Last week, the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals allowed Texas to close abortion clinics while a legal challenge makes its way through the court system. As a result, Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas canceled 261 abortions in just more than a week, as reported by Lila Rose of Live Action.

There is no business more nonessential than killing preborn babies. Sisolak undercuts his “Stay Home for Nevada” mantra by allowing abortion providers to remain open.

Victor Joecks’ column appears in the Opinion section each Sunday, Wednesday and Friday. Contact him at vjoecks@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4698. Follow @victorjoecks on Twitter.