The Church earlier this month confirmed its position on abortion that "it remains the same."
Members are swapping political parties and many who are voting Democrat are beginning to adopt that platform including "reproductive rights."
piece for abortion it's very interesting
in the environment we're in right now
with the election coming up in just a
couple of weeks how did this piece get
through and why are they allowing it now
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[Music]
all right welcome to Quick show my name
is Greg Matson and I am your host in
this episode we're talking about the
abortion article from the student
newspaper of BYU the daily Universe
question is is how did this get through
why was it let through this is an
advocacy piece supporting abortion now
some may push against that but we'll
look through it you make your own
decision and it's very interesting in
the environment we're in right now we
just had the church come out on the uh
The Newsroom going over political
neutrality and abortion right they
they're affirming their position let's
see what this says here just looking at
the date here it's October 8th so just a
couple weeks ago Church reiterates
positions on political neutrality civil
discourse and abortion let's look at the
last paragraph here it says with respect
to several current US state ballot
initiatives relative to abortion and
sanctity for life right this is now at a
state level which is where I believe
this should be the church affirms that
its position on abortion remains
unchanged so it has always been this way
as States work to enact laws related to
abortion church members May
appropriately choose to participate in
efforts to protect life and to preserve
religious liberty so the piece from the
BYU daily Universe does exactly the
opposite and before I get into the piece
here let's also go to the official
position on abortion by the church here
it is the Church of Jesus Christ of
latterday saints believes in the
sanctity of human life therefore the
church opposes elective abortion for
personal or social convenience and
counsels its members not to submit to
perform encourage pay for or arrange for
such
abortions and then it gives its its uh
exceptions which it has done for a very
long time on rape or incest uh if it's
determined that the life or health of
the mother is in serious Jeopardy that a
competent physician determines that the
fetus has severe defects that will not
allow the baby to survive Beyond
birth and then it goes to the point of
saying even these exceptions do not
automatically justify abortion abortion
is a most serious matter
and again reiterates what it said in the
press release the church's position on
this matter remains unchanged as States
work to enact laws related to abortion
church members May appropriately choose
to participate in efforts to protect
life and preserve religious liberty yet
now we have a a piece from the student
newspaper coming out of BYU that does
the exact opposite it's shocking how
things change
let's take a look here here we have the
daily Universe the title of the uh of
the piece is Utah women rally for re
Reproductive Rights voter action right
because this is going to be a rally that
was held in Salt Lake uh at the capital
about basically it's get out the vote
right that's what they're doing here
it's getting out the vote let's take a
look at the beginning here and look at
the language that is given in in this
article it says remember this is in the
BYU student newspaper Green Wave Utah an
organization hosted a rally on Utah's
capital on October 12th empowering women
to vote I don't know how that empowers
women to vote but uh to vote and stand
for their rights to reproductive care
you're going to read this and the tone
of this is as if you're going to find it
in Vice or slate magazine and let me
just back up on this for a second here
because look I I don't mind you know I
don't care if there's something here
that is political in in the uh the
discourse or the communic ations of of
the student magazine even if it's on the
side of the Democrats versus the side of
the Republicans that's that's fine and
they actually cover both sides at least
to some degree but this is a separate
issue this is a church issue this is
like coming out and supporting a rally
against the family or against religious
liberty and yet here it is so this would
have had to have gone not only from the
student that authored this article but
it had to have gone through a an
approval process
at the daily universe and maybe above
that I'm sure somebody in the
administration must I would imagine see
some of these articles and they must
come across their desk okay a few more
pieces here on Capitol Hill they
welcomed attendees to hear from local
politicians and Advocates members of the
community showed their support for
women's reproductive rights in the state
of Utah Darlene McDonald author Democrat
National Committee woman and social
justice Advocate right you can get the
flavor of this spoke about the 14th
Amendment of the US Constitution stating
that it is not just an issue of the
right to abortion that it's not just the
right to abortion it's also get out the
vote there's also a quote from a BYU
Alum and president of young Democrats of
Utah Emma Fetzer who encouraged women to
unite when their rights are under attack
Fetzer asked attendees to talk to at
least three people today and ask them if
they have a plan to vote right so again
that's really what this is get out the
vote and it's just odd that you would
have a piece like this in a BYU
newspaper that is advocating for
something the church very specifically
preaches against but also in a time of
an election something that is basically
advocating to get out the vote to one
side or the other they also cited
Caroline glik I I hope I got that name
pronounced right stating the following
our current leaders have failed us now
she's running for US Senate so she's
talking about I guess Romney and uh and
Lee here right they are talking taking
our state and our country in the wrong
direction well first of all not the
state they're not state representatives
in that sense they're not dealing with
state issues and we can't keep sending
the same kind of political leaders if we
want a different outcome it's up to us
now to be the leaders that we want to
see and then she says this which is kind
of interesting it says we need more
women in the rooms where these decision
are made and there is ample research
that shows that when women lead
everybody benefits we will not tolerate
going backwards well okay first of all
you know you see this argument all the
time we need more women okay here's my
first question why why do we need more
women I do think there's a benefit for
having women involved by the way I I
think that sometimes it could be a lot
of women it could be a few women it
could be no women though sometimes I
care about the outcome that's what I'm
voting for I'm not voting for gentia I'm
voting for the outcome so if there's a
woman that is voting for what I agree
with as a
citizen going against a man who is
voting for things and and pushing policy
that I do not agree with of course I'm
going to vote for the woman so it's not
a matter of gentia it's a matter of
policy it's a matter of ideology to some
degree and world view not to mention the
fact that women have the loudest voice
in
voting more women vote than men when you
take the entire compilation of the votes
of the US votes you get a higher
percentage of that aggregation which is
cast by women they have more of a voice
they participate more than men so you
can say that the
majority has chosen where we are today
and that is women and then there's just
more about getting out the vote here uh
Stephanie Stephanie McKinnon founder of
greenwave Utah a recently founded
organization founded by local Utah
inspired by representatives to get
involved and to take action standing for
women's protective rights Reproductive
Rights must was pleased with how the
rally turned out and encouraged anyone
looking to get involved to come to the
women's march on November 2nd at
Washington Square in Salt Lake City okay
again this is an advocacy piece it's
about voting but this is a piece that is
completely 180 Dees from where the
church
stands I just don't know how something
like this would have been have gotten
through you know even 10 15 years
ago but apparently by those who approve
these things they support it let's go
back here and look at a search on
abortion on El on uh the church's
website here you can pull up abortion
and you see all of the different things
here that go back for years and years
and they're also very recent right the
Church of Jesus Christ of latterday
saints believes in the sanctity of human
life therefore the church opposes
elective abortion although a common
practice in many cultures around the
world abortion is contrary to the will
and commandment of
God here's something from a church
manual right abortion is evil Stark and
real and repugnant which is sweeping
over the Earth we can go to president
Nelson then Elder Nelson from the Corum
of the 12 apostles on something he wrote
in the
liahona called abortion an assault on
the
defenseless and I recommend you go and
read this this is from October 2008 he's
also spoken about abortion at General
Conference so what what are the students
and the managers and uh the
administrators involved in this thinking
when they decide they're going to put
this out in the student magazine the
student
paper now again to be fair as I pull
this up today I just want to show you
here they've got Trump serves up
McDonald's you know you've probably seen
all the memes online about this whole
thing was a big huge uh uh
PR coup for uh president Trump and
they've got it up here right as a CNN
news source so they put this up so I'm
not saying that this is all one-sided
again I'm what I'm say and it's not an
issue of being political I this is not
the church this is a student
magazine and so I don't know that uh
while you would probably want to be
politically neutral you may want to
you're going to have journalists here
that want people that students that want
to be journalists talking about the
election and so here they're covering
another side of this the issue is
abortion and going against the church
look what it says here at the bottom of
the page on the BYU universe of the BYU
uh daily Universe here's about us the
Daily universe is an educational lab
tied to the curriculum of the journalism
sequence in the BYU School of
Communications and is committed to the
mission of BYU and its sponsoring
institution the Church of Jesus Christ
of latterday saints well committed up to
a point it appears until the church
crosses the line on a certain agenda
then they're going to push back and push
something through anyway now the other
thing I wanted to touch on is the
political dynamics of what's happening
between the Republican and and Democrat
parties and the shift in those
demographics we've talked about this a
little bit but you have a number of
individual that are Democrats that are
kind of looking at this whole woke stuff
and just going I I cannot believe what
is going on this is beyond science this
is beyond any kind of reality I'm done
with this and then they become typically
something kind of neutral some of them
maybe then start supporting the
Republicans you look at people like Bill
Maher and and Jonathan height and
stevenh Pinker right I'm not saying that
they're Trump people but they feel
abandoned by the plat form the new
platform of the Democrat party and there
are several individuals that are like
that that have kind of a an
Enlightenment classical liberal
worldview that no longer find that on
the left Free Speech right freedom of
speech is an example that has moved from
an issue on the left it is now an issue
that is fought for over on the right and
then on the other side you have kind of
these I'm going to call them romit
which are you have Congressman uh
previous Congressman uh Jeff Flake from
here from Arizona you have the Mesa
mayor Mesa right mostly a a majority
latterday Saint city of I believe we're
pushing around 800,000 over there now
who was at the Kamala Harris rally just
a few weeks ago and you also have board
members there of the city council
individuals town Council that also are
putting out ads here locally that are
Republican that are now switching over
to comma you have of course Mitt Romney
and several other and I'm just going to
say it middle to Upper income latterday
saints that are kind of part of that
group not politically in terms of being
in politics but rather kind of following
the same mentality that are now moving
over to the left and what's interesting
is tracking these individuals I have
friends like this that you track these
individuals and all of a sudden they're
not just like ant just anti-trump
because that's the primary reason right
but they're now starting to adopt piece
by piece the Democrat platform because
this is their new Circle and so you see
them on items like issues like abortion
start to open up and even start to
support it those that never agreed with
the uh uh trans positioning of minors
from one gender to another now starting
to support it and so it's going to be
very interesting to see The Fallout of
all of this the the shifting from both
sides how that's going to affect
Latter-Day Saints politically and how
many that are making this switch are
going to remain in that switch or are
they going to return home politically so
many moving pieces right now in our
culture as there are so many changes so
many new
ideas so many things coming up that we
never would have dreamed of just 10 15
years ago thanks for listening
