This past Saturday afternoon, February 9th, Democrat Senator Cory Booker, who is running for President in 2020, was out practicing portions of his stump speech at a campaign rally in Des Moines.

I happened to be watching on C-SPAN as I was folding the never-ending laundry at my house, and something jumped out to me. Watch this clip and see if you catch it:

“Medicare for All,” But Not for the Youngest?

In the clip, Democrat Presidential candidate and current U.S. Senator Cory Booker talks about how the Democrat Party needs to win a lot of Senate seats in 2020 in order to reach their goal of Medicare for all.

Even before we get to what jumped out to me in that clip, what is “Medicare for All”?

According to an opinion piece in The Hill on Monday by Betsy McCaughey, “Medicare for All” is a phony name, a bait and switch, which keeps the name “Medicare” and nothing else.

McCaughey explains that the so-called “Medicare for All” legislation “actually abolishes Medicare and Medicare Advantage, and outlaws employer-provided coverage and the private insurance people buy for themselves. Everyone automatically will be enrolled in the same one-size-fits-all public coverage, whether they work or not. Children will be signed up at birth.”

McCaughey continues, “Once the government is paying for the entire nation’s health care, watch your tax bill soar. A single middle-class guy currently paying a 24 percent marginal tax rate will get clobbered with a life-changing 60 percent rate instead. Say goodbye to your standard of living.”

So just to be clear, “Medicare for All” is the single-payer health care system Sen. Bernie Sanders has been pushing for years. It’s caught on inside the Democrat Party and now is quite popular. It will likely be part of the 2020 Democrat Party Platform.

Democrats say it is not “socialized medicine” as that does not sound good to the average voter, but Democrats also have a hard time explaining why it is not socialized medicine other than because they say it is not.

Regardless of where anyone falls on this debate over so-called “Medicare for All,” single-payer health care, or socialized medicine – bring on the robust debate. People of good-will can have reasonable arguments on all sides of this and hopefully the Democratic primary and the 2020 elections will foster those debates. May the best idea win, for the sake of the American people.

But in that clip of Senator Cory Booker arguing passionately for single-payer health care, something jumped out to me that had nothing to do with “Medicare for All” and we would all be wise to take notice.

Senator Booker argues that health care is a fundamental human right, and yet at the same time, Senator Booker is strongly pro-abortion. He has a 100% NARAL Rating, and a 100% Planned Parenthood Action Fund Rating.

Senator Booker argues for health care as a fundamental right but he does not believe in the fundamental human right to life, which is obviously even more fundamental and preeminent than a right to health care. If you are not given a right to live, why would a right to health care matter? There is no value to universal health care if you cannot make it out of the womb.

Pope St. John Paul II explains it well when he states in his Apostolic Exhortation, Christifideles Laici, that “the right to health, to home, to work, to family, to culture — is false and illusory if the right to life, the most basic and fundamental right and the condition for all other personal rights, is not defended with maximum determination.”

This is not a religious position, even if religious people “get it” – it really ought to be common sense. Yet, we have an entire political party in the U.S. buying into this insanity that argues for justice while it advances the direct, intentional killing of children in the wombs of their mothers, and now even outside the wombs of their mothers, as thousands of babies are killed by abortion every day in our nation.

Where is their right to health care, Senator Booker?

There is some serious cognitive dissonance in believing in universal health care and, at the same time, believing in killing children in the wombs of their mothers. This cognitive dissonance, the tensions between the absurdity of having these two beliefs at the same time, is evident for all to see as Senator Booker, in that clip, began talking about how the brain develops in a child’s younger years.

Let’s drill down on just that part of the clip:

The Cognitive Dissonance of “In the Woo…”

He said, “…that brain is starting to develop, you know this, in its younger years, in its, in its, in the, in the, in the woo… in those early years…”

“In the woo…”

If you paid attention to the Kavanaugh hearings, you’re aware of Senator Booker’s Spartacus moment. This I would call Senator Booker’s “In the woo…” moment.

Watching his remarks, it certainly seems like Senator Booker is expressing a desire to be a champion for young children as he makes his argument for why young children need universal healthcare. It seems that as he is speaking, he is thinking about the young developing brain, and he wants to speak to the fact of how a child’s brain is developing even inside the womb, which it certainly is. But then Senator Booker stutters and cannot even complete the word “womb,” because, in my reading of this, he realizes he is not actually a champion for all children, just for some, and as he approaches his cut off line linguistically, he buckles.

Senator Booker does not believe in universal healthcare for children in the womb, rather Booker is a supporter for allowing children in the womb to be stripped even of their most fundamental right, their right to life.

And so instead of simply saying “in the womb,” Senator Booker stops short, saying “in the woo…” and then he quickly replaces it with “in those early years.”

It seems to me that Senator Booker knows the brain is developing in children who are in the womb and I would encourage him to say so and to defend their right to life. If he believes in a universal right to health care, then be consistent, and defend their right to health care too.

Since Senator Booker would not say it, and it is an important scientific fact worth spreading, let us take the opportunity he passed on and share the truth about the developing brain of children in the womb.

Yes, the Brain of Every Child is Developing in the Womb

Clearly this information cannot be dismissed by those who are pro-abortion as some so-called “radical anti-abortion source.”

Here is what they lay out:

A baby’s nervous system starts developing right out of the starting gates. The fetal nervous system — the baby’s brain and spinal cord — is one of the very first systems to develop. In fact, it’s making big strides before the mom even knows she’s pregnant.

In the first trimester:

A mere 16 days after conception, the baby’s neural plate forms (think of it as the foundation of the baby’s brain and spinal cord). It grows longer and folds onto itself, until that fold morphs into a groove, and that groove turns into a tube — the neural tube.

Once the neural tube closes, at around week 6 or week 7 of pregnancy, it curves and bulges into three sections, commonly known as the forebrain, midbrain and hindbrain. Just to the rear of the hindbrain sits the part that will soon turn into the baby’s spinal cord.

Soon, these areas bubble into those five different regions of the brain that we’re most familiar with: the cerebrum, cerebellum, brain stem, pituitary gland and the hypothalamus. Of course, all of these fetal brain areas need more time to be fully up and running.

At the same time, special neural cells form and migrate throughout the embryo to form the very beginnings of nerves. The baby’s nervous system is made up of millions upon millions of neurons; each of these microscopic cells have itty-bitty branches coming off of them so that they can connect and communicate with each other. With this comes the baby’s first synapses, which essentially means the baby’s neurons can communicate and create early fetal movements…like curling into the fetal position.

Other movements follow quickly, with the baby wiggling his or her developing limbs at around 8 weeks. By the end of the first trimester, baby has garnered quite a repertoire of motion, though the mom doesn’t feel any of it quite yet. And at about the same time as baby first wiggles his limbs, he begins to develop the sense of touch.

In the second trimester:

Steady contractions of baby’s diaphragm and chest muscles occur (think of them as practice breathing movements). Baby’s first sucking and swallowing impulses kick in around 16 weeks. By 21 weeks, the baby’s natural reflexes will allow him to swallow several ounces of amniotic fluid every day. And all of that swallowing means the baby’s tasting, too – another sense that’s now in full gear.

At around 18 weeks of pregnancy, mom feels baby’s first kick (sometimes it might take longer, especially for first-time moms).

Around the same time, the baby’s nerves become covered with myelin (my-a-lin), a protective insulation that speeds messages between nerve cells (myelin continues to grow until the baby’s first birthday). And at 24 weeks, another big reflex occurs: Blinking.

At the tail-end of trimester two, the little one’s brainstem (heart rate, breathing, blood pressure) is almost entirely mature, resting just above the spinal cord but below the cerebral cortex (the last area to mature).

By now, the fetal nervous system is developed enough so the baby is startled by loud noises outside the womb — and may even turn his head toward the sound of your voice! Another exciting development: At 28 weeks, fetal brainwave activity features sleep cycles, including REM (the stage when dreaming occurs).

The third trimester:

A baby’s brain roughly triples in weight during the last 13 weeks of gestation, growing from about 3.5 ounces at the end the second trimester to almost 10.6 ounces at term. And it’s starting to look different, too: Its formerly once smooth surface is becoming increasingly grooved and indented (like the images of brains we’re used to seeing).

The third trimester is brimming with rapid development of neurons and wiring.

At the same time, the cerebellum (motor control) is developing fast — faster now than any other area of the fetal brain.

The Remedy – Human Rights Begin in the Womb

Feel free to go ahead and say it next time: the young child’s brain is starting to develop in the womb.

Of course you know that, but in order to freely say that, you are going to have to remedy that cognitive dissonance you are experiencing.

The good news is – the fix is easy. Just correct the absurd and disastrous inconsistency of your positions by becoming a true champion for all children, including those in the womb.