Who is Really Killing Grandma?

Right to Life of Michigan isn’t killing grandma; Governor Whitmer might be, though.

Since the early days of the pandemic, Right to Life of Michigan has criticized Governor Whitmer for the separate and unfair treatment she is giving to abortion facilities. The Governor is privileging elective abortions over truly necessary medical procedures deemed “not essential.” Other than that, we haven’t weighed in on other pandemic response policies.

Despite staying in our lane, we have received some ongoing criticism from abortion supporters. The comments all go something like this: “You aren’t speaking out against reopening businesses as the sacrifice of the aged, sick, homeless, etc.”

It is not just limited to e-mails and mean tweets. During a debate on the floor of the Michigan Senate over Governor Whitmer’s legal authority, Senator Curtis Hertel, Jr., had some harsh words for prolifers.

Sen. Hertel said, “I don’t want to hear another damn thing about the sanctity of life from the other side of the aisle again. Apparently, life is sacred unless it stops the almighty dollar or your golf game.”

Well, since they keep asking for our opinion, how about this? Consider Michigan’s nursing homes. Sadly, Michigan citizens have not been given death figures from our nursing homes yet. The median age of deaths due to the coronavirus in Michigan is 76, so we can only guess the toll in our nursing facilities has been catastrophic.

It has been the policy of Governor Whitmer’s Administration to place seniors stricken with the coronavirus into “regional hubs,” which include nursing homes. They are paying these nursing homes $5,000 a bed to purposefully bring the virus into their buildings.

Since some other states are transparent and publish their nursing home death figures, we are learning what a foolish policy this is. It was blind hope that separation procedures inside the nursing homes would protect our most vulnerable citizens. Notably, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo ended this practice in his state a few days ago.

However, Whitmer’s Administration still seems committed to it. In a story from WDIV on May 11, Michigan’s Chief Medical Executive Joneigh Khaldun defended putting the coronavirus into nursing homes: “It’s a good move, a good step to make these regional hubs, and I think as we move forward, we have to look at making sure we’re really implementing best practices, looking to other best practices across the state.”

A good move?

Right to Life of Michigan has dealt with many end of life issues over the years, which disproportionally affect our seniors. Usually seniors are at risk of euthanasia or rationing of medical care because of a callous attitude toward the value of their lives. Sometimes it’s motivated by greed from family members, or a twisted sense of doing patients and their families a favor from medical providers. Those are value problems.

Putting coronavirus patients into nursing homes? Perhaps that is a value problem, but it’s really best explained as a competence problem. We are sure many in Governor Whitmer’s Administration thought her nursing home policy sounded good on paper, when we thought our entire hospital system was at risk of collapse.

However, the numbers are in. Our hospitals are not overwhelmed. The dedicated coronavirus field hospital set up in the building formerly known as Cobo Hall is shuttered. Our elderly family members are overwhelmingly the highest risk category for this virus, making up more than half the dead.

So, since some of you keep asking, we’re weighing in, mostly from a standpoint of basic common sense: Right to Life of Michigan believes purposefully placing the coronavirus into nursing homes is not a “good move.” Who could possibly think this is a smart? This policy could prove to be the worst possible move in this pandemic. At the very least they should release the figures on deaths in our nursing homes so we can see how bad it is.

Now, here’s our response to the abortion supporters angry at us for not weighing in on the Governor’s stay-at-home-order: you are talking to the wrong people about “killing grandma.” You should instead be asking Governor Gretchen Whitmer and her Administration if they are done with sacrificing grandma yet.

Is the lockdown a wise decision? You decide, but anyone ought to be able to see that putting the virus into nursing homes was as far from a “good move” as you can get!

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