Trump White House Contemplates Genocide

What the Trump White House is considering as its approach to the COVID-19 pandemic is a form of genocide. Genocide is “the deliberate killing of a large group of people, especially those of a particular ethnic group or nation.” In this particular case the group of people at which the genocide would be directed is the whole population of the United States. The pandemic would be allowed to run its course, taking its toll in suffering and death and leaving a segment of the population with serious health problems from their infection with the COVID-19 coronavirus, health problems from which they may not recover and which would shorten their lives.

This approach to the pandemic is the kind of eugenic thinking that one associates with the Nazis and Hitler’s Germany. It reveals a cruel indifference to human life and human suffering. It belies Donald Trump and his administrations claim to be pro-life. It is also arguably real grounds for not only the impeachment of President on “high crimes and misdemeanors” but also the criminal indictment of the President and his advisors on the charge of premeditated murder.

President Trump was not always pro-life as he now claims to be. He was at one time pro-choice. His shift from pro-choice to pro-life has all the earmarks of having been prompted by a desire to gain the support of pro-life voters in a bid for the office of the President of the United States. A number of his policies are certainly not pro-life. Being pro-life goes beyond protecting the unborn.

President Trump is quite adept at sizing up an audience and telling them what they want to hear. He may not really share their values. But he will claim that he does to win their vote.

According to the CDC, pregnant women with COVID-19 are more likely to be hospitalized and are at increased risk for intensive care unit (ICU) admission and receipt of mechanical ventilation than nonpregnant women. While the death rate has not been high, this information is based on case report forms that include information on pregnancy status. Only one third of the case report forms that the CDC receives includes this information. The hospitalization rate and the death rate may be higher.

While it was earlier thought that the COVID-19 coronavirus could not pass from the mother to the developing child, more recent studies found 3 % to 5 % of newborns are infected with the virus in the womb. French doctors reported the first confirmed case of a newborn infected in the womb with COVID-19 by the mother. The baby suffered brain swelling and neurological symptoms that are linked to the COVID-19 coronavirus in adults. A very high fever which is one of the symptoms of the virus can impact fetal development in the first trimester. The reduction of blood oxygen, another symptom of the virus, can also impact fetal development.

The Trump administration has worked to dismantle the Affordable Care Act which provides affordable health insurance for pregnant women as well as other Americans. Among the reasons that Amy Coney Barratt was picked as Trump’s latest nominee for Supreme Court justice was to complete the dismantling of the act, depriving pregnant women of affordable prenatal care and affordable hospital care in the event they became hospitalized with the COVID-19 coronavirus. The Trump administration and the Republican-dominated Senate has promised to come up with an alternative to the Affordable Care Act but have yet to do so.

The dismantling of the Affordable Care Act is one of a number of Trump administration policies which show that the administration is not genuinely pro-life. Its willingness to permit the COVID-19 pandemic to rage out of control across the United States and to do nothing to contain it is further evidence that the Trump administration is not pro-life but pro-death.