‘We’re safer if we’re not born’: Anti-abortion Republican wants to give Americans a ‘choice’ between not shopping and death

An anti-choice Republican lawmaker wondered if Americans might be safer from the coronavirus if they had never been born.

Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD), who is also an anesthesiologist, sparred Wednesday with former Centers For Disease Control director Tom Frieden during a hearing of House Appropriations Committee, challenging data showing that shelter-in-place measures slowed the pandemic's spread.

"We’re safer if we’re not born," Harris said. "We’re safer from death if we’re not born, right? The bottom line is there is some element of risk."

He then challenged Caitlin Rivers, an epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, with pro-choice rhetoric after she said customers may not feel safe returning to reopened businesses in his mostly rural district.

"That's their choice, isn't it?" the lawmaker said.