'Your administration has killed over 200,000 people:' Backlash after Trump issues 'PRO LIFE' tweet
The president formerly said he was “very pro-choice”
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Your support makes all the difference.Donald Trump's ability to tweet has apparently not been dampened by the effects of the coronavirus.
The president unleashed a string of tweets Monday outlining what he views as accomplishments of his administration along with an exhortation for citizens to go vote.
The staccato tweets included phrases like "RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. VOTE!" and "STOCK MARKET HIGHS. VOTE!" Though all of the tweets had substantial engagement, the one that appears to have generated the most response by far was a message that said "PRO LIFE! VOTE!"
Critics of the president were quick to allege hypocrisy on his part for claiming to be "pro life."
Dr Jennifer Gunter, an OBGYN and author, said Mr Trump only used reproductive rights issues to garner votes.
"You are forced birth and pro death. Your administration has killed over 200,000 people," she wrote. "Punishing women gets votes, just own it."
Father James Martin, a Jesuit priest and editor of Jesuit publication America Magazine, pointed to a damning statement from a doctor at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center - the hospital where the president is being treated - who criticsed the president's now infamous drive-by on Sunday.
"Pro life administration?" the priest asks, rhetorically, in his quote tweet.
The physician he quoted, Dr James P Phillips, pointed out that everyone involved in Mr Trump's SUV ride to wave at supporters would be forced into a two week quarantine period and risked illness.
"Every single person in the vehicle during that completely unnecessary Presidential "drive-by" just now has to be quarantined for 14 days," he wrote. "They might get sick. They may die. For political theater. Commanded by Trump to put their lives at risk for theater. This is insanity."
Others pointed out that the Regeneron "drug cocktail" Mr Trump was given as part of his coronavirus treatment was created in part through the use of human embryonic stem cells.
In a statement about the drug, Regeneron wrote that all of its "research conducted on stem cells adhered to federal and state laws and regulations. Regeneron demands from its collaborators and vendors that all human stem cell lines used in its research are from properly consented individuals."
Regeneron uses both adult stem cells and embryonic stem cells harvested through the use of in vitro fertilisation.
Mr Trump's views on abortion appear to have changed as he aged. In 1999, Mr Trump told NBC News that he was "very pro-choice" during an interview.
By the time of his 2016 presidential campaign, Mr Trump's abortion views appear to have swung far to the right.
He claimed that women who received abortions should be subjected to "some form of punishment" for doing so, but eventually backed off that position after strong public outcry.
Mr Trump clarified his remarks, and claimed that he thought only doctors who preform abortions, not the women who receive them, should be punished.
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