Democrats are no longer the party of “safe, legal, and rare” abortion. No, they now look at abortion as one would freedom of speech or religion.

During the first Democratic presidential debate, it was apparent that each candidate would fiercely protect abortion if elected. What was somewhat unexpected, though, was the mention of transgender Americans when referencing abortion. Presidential candidate Julián Castro made mention of the trans community while speaking about reproductive rights, oddly calling on Democrats to fight for abortion access for “trans females,” who are biologically male. Castro was sharply ridiculed for his attempt at "wokeness" by HBO's Bill Maher. Yet Republicans, and any American who believes in the sanctity of life, should be horrified that misgendering is more important to Democrats than the lives of the unborn.

In a Politico article, transgender journalist Katelyn Burns wrote that Castro's gaffe is proof the Democrats care little about the community:

There was just one small problem. Castro fumbled his answer. ‘Trans females,’ as Castro said, refers to trans women who were assigned male at birth. That’s a demographic that doesn’t need access to abortion care. Trans men and nonbinary people who were assigned female at birth, on the other hand, do need that reproductive health care access. Labeling them as female is considered misgendering.

In reality, what's truly shocking is Castro's blatant dismissal of the personhood of the unborn, rather than his supposed speech crime of misgendering.

Of course, while conservatives may disagree with transgender Americans, they should treat them with respect and as possessing as much inherent worth as anyone else. But long before their involvement in the LGBT community, transgender individuals were unborn babies and in need of protection. It’s a shame many progressives don’t appreciate that.

In 2019, we're told that using the wrong pronouns is the height of disrespect, an act of “dehumanization.” We're told that not recognizing which gender an adult chooses to identify as is minimizing their worth. But these priorities are skewed.

Our most basic right, the one upon which everything else rests, is the right to life. And for years, the Democratic Party has disregarded it entirely in favor of access to abortion. They continue to move further away from the basic principle in an attempt to stay woke. This is a lopsided approach.

The transgender community amounts to little more than one-half of 1% of the population. On the other hand, there have been approximately 60 million abortions since 1973, when Roe v. Wade was decided. It is maddening to think that transgender terminology and access to abortion matters more than the millions upon millions of unborn babies who have been destroyed and discarded. But this is the modern-day Democratic Party.

It is backward to concern ourselves more with semantics than with the sanctity of life. In actuality, it is discriminatory to view an unborn life as worthless. But as we've seen in the first debate and as we'll surely see in the ones to come, those vying for the Democratic Party's nomination have confused the most important issues facing our nation, and choose to bicker over pronouns instead.

Kimberly Ross (@SouthernKeeks) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner's Beltway Confidential blog and a columnist at Arc Digital.