Pro-lifers are making a grave mistake
Absolutist politicking will erase decades of pro-life achievements
Pro-life conservatives are making a grave mistake, and it’s one that risks destroying the future of the country.
Instead of reveling in and building upon the overturning of Roe v. Wade, the pro-life movement is on the verge of eradicating half a century of incremental policy victories. Apparently unbothered by the 2022 midterm losses, its leaders refuse to live in or accept the current political reality. Their abortion absolutism could be the very issue that costs Republicans in the upcoming election.
Donald Trump is trying to stop that from happening.
The de facto Republican nominee attempted to get ahead of this risk to his reelection hopes by releasing a video earlier this week, in which he explained and clarified his position on abortion.
In the video, Trump, like the Supreme Court, essentially declared that the issue should be left to the states. He declared that “the states will determine by vote, or legislation, or perhaps both” on how to handle abortion.
Almost immediately, Trump’s video caused an uproar among pro-life conservatives. Lila Rose, the President and Founder of Live Action, said “Trump is not a pro-life candidate…he supports killing some preborn children and will even make that his position in an attempt to get pro-abortion votes.” Blaze TV host Allie Beth Stuckey said Trump “threw pro-life Christians under the bus.” Former Vice President Mike Pence called Trump’s remarks a “slap in the face.”
What the pro-life movement gets wrong
On principle, if you’re Catholic and pro-life as I am, the criticisms of Trump’s video aren’t wrong. Every life is sacred, and no circumstance around a child’s conception justifies murdering that child. Trump’s critics are thus right to say every innocent life is worth saving, which by extension means all levels of government should protect these lives.
All that aside, what exactly were pro-lifers expecting Trump to come out and say? Did they want him to come out and call for a complete and total ban on abortions? That truly seems like the only position that would satisfy them. Do they honestly believe that Trump, much less any Republican, could win a national election on that message? What’s next? Would they like him to campaign on banning birth control too?
If the answer to any of the above is yes, then these pro-lifers—whose work and commentary I respect—are delusional.
Let’s deal in reality.
The pro-life movement was clearly unprepared to address the new reality posed by Dobbs. At the national level, Republicans underperformed in what should have been the “red wave” 2022 midterm election. In each of the seven states (including three solid Republican states) where abortion was on the ballot, the pro-abortion position won.
The polls continue to show Americans do not support a total abortion ban. A recent poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation found just 17 percent of Americans would support a complete ban on abortions. According to YouGov, that number is even lower at less than 10 percent.
If Trump were to run on such an abortion ban, Joe Biden would easily win reelection despite having historically bad approval ratings for an incumbent, and overseeing record inflation and an invasion along the southern border.
If that happens, how many lives can pro-lifers save when they don’t have a seat at the governing table? The answer is zero. The fastest way to ensure there are more innocent lives lost to abortion is to support a federal abortion ban.
But that fact hasn’t stopped pro-life activists from arguing that Trump, and all Republicans for that matter, should adopt these unpopular positions on abortion as a matter of moral principle. It’s the right’s form of virtue-signaling. They believe it is more noble to lose standing for what is right than win by supporting, or at least tolerating, evil.
That type of self-righteousness and moral preening don’t bode well for the country. It’s also not a stance conservatives have the luxury of taking.
Pro-lifers should instead look to slavery, the issue they often compare abortion to, and the man who abolished it, Abraham Lincoln, as a guide.
Before he was known as the American hero he is today, Lincoln said the following about social and political rights for African-Americans at one of the Lincoln-Douglas debates.
“I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races—that I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermingling with white people;”
It’s hard to believe the man historically credited with ending slavery ever could have said that.
Though Lincoln was personally opposed to slavery, he also notably opposed its abolition during his 1860 presidential campaign. Lincoln also never campaigned on emancipating slaves, he simply promised to oppose slavery’s expansion.
At the time, abolitionists criticized Lincoln’s stance and were unsure whether they could support him. Enough of them did, and the rest, as they say, is history.
But had abolitionists opposed Lincoln on the grounds that he wasn’t abolitionist enough, or, had Lincoln campaigned on full abolition, would slavery have ended when it did? Likely not.
The same is true here. The choice isn’t between completely outlawing abortion or legalizing it. That’s a false choice. But for the sake of the argument, let’s continue to play out this logic. Say Republicans adopt the morally absolute position and go on to lose the 2024 election. Then what? Have these pro-lifers thought that through?
Here’s a sample of what we could expect in that scenario:
Democrats take complete control of Congress
Democrats pass a law allowing unlimited, anytime, anywhere abortion–even after-birth infanticide
Democrats fund abortions with taxpayer dollars
Decades of conservative pro-life efforts to restrict abortion at the state-level are wiped out
Abortions, now legal in all cases, skyrocket
Is this the future the pro-life movement wants? This is what political purity will yield—more dead babies.
The reality is, most Americans believe that murdering an unborn child should be legal in some instances. It’s abhorrent, sad, and infuriating. But it’s simply the reality. No amount of absolutism on the issue will change that.
So the pro-life movement has to seriously consider its options. There’s Trump who has proven to side with life in his decision making as president, despite not being ideologically committed to defeating abortion. And there’s Biden, the Catholic-in-name-only president who supports abortion on demand and who has directed his Justice Department to arrest and imprison peaceful pro-life protesters.
As Matt Walsh put it on his show yesterday, these two candidates represent the following: a small victory or step forward with Trump, or a giant step backwards if Biden is reelected. By not choosing the former, you are choosing the latter. There is no other alternative.
Trump’s statement, though far from perfect, is the right move…for now
Trump’s statement on abortion was far from perfect. He ceded language to the left by making references to “abortion rights.” And his calls to listen to the “will of the people” is akin to mob rule on the issue. Fundamental rights, like the right to life, should not be left to the will of the people.
However, the strategy behind his statement is correct. Trump is attempting to remove abortion from play in the upcoming election. It’s hard to know if it will work, since the left and the media will fearmonger with falsehoods as they always do. But it’s worth trying.
In a landscape where state legislatures control the fate of abortion limits, Trump’s states’ rights position allows him to skirt on siding with any specific limit (for now). His position also allows him to deny he will push Congress to adopt a national standard. Both of these are politically useful.
This states’ rights position should be palatable to pro-lifers, provided Trump doesn’t actually object to any state attempts to limit abortion…which, unfortunately, he did today. In true Trumpian fashion, he contradicted himself in less than 24 hours and said that Arizona went too far with its abortion ban.
If Trump continues to criticize pro-life laws and efforts, he will only further divide an already fractured Right. He should refrain from doing so. Instead, he should continue to maintain a states’ rights position while highlighting the Left’s extremism on the issue.