Brock Schmeling: Doug Burgum Can't Just "Pivot Away" From Important Issues

Doug Burgum recently entered the race for the gubernatorial nomination. When I asked him if all North Dakotans had a right to life, he said that he wasn’t going to comment on controversial issues at this point in the campaign, and he was sick of having to answer this question so many times already. Burgum stuck to his game plan of “pivot[ing] away from the intractable” issue of life.

This is a weak position and disingenuous as well. The Fargo Forum has reported in multiple articles that Burgum is pro-abortion-choice. Based on the Forum’s assessment, Burgum “has been unfairly characterized as a ‘RINO’ (Republican in name only)” because of his “enlightened and inclusive positions on social issues – positions that will not be embraced anytime soon by the North Dakota Republican Party.”

[mks_pullquote align=”right” width=”300″ size=”24″ bg_color=”#ffffff” txt_color=”#000000″]Burgum stuck to his game plan of “pivot[ing] away from the intractable” issue of life.[/mks_pullquote]

If Republicans support positions that are neither enlightened nor inclusive, it would be not only fair, but indeed the highest praise to say Burgum is a Republican in name only.

What is meant by “enlightened and inclusive”? Abortion on demand to end the life of babies with heartbeats, brain waves, the ability to feel pain and react to painful stimuli. What is meant by enlightened and inclusive is actually barbaric and exclusive.

I found it very interesting how Doug Burgum mentioned the importance of bringing in young families to the state, yet he failed to denounce the industry that ends the lives of a kindergarten class every week in North Dakota. We already have these young families. We need to do more to support them and provide them alternatives to the violence and death of abortion.

For both the Forum’s and Mr. Burgum’s knowledge, North Dakota deserves better than the destructive violence of abortion. Abortion is brutal and exclusive not enlightened or inclusive.