Have you ever been lost in a shopping mall or an amusement park and stopped to check the marquis map? To find your location, you look for three little words. “You are here.”
The election was a “You are here” wake-up call for the pro-life movement, because if you don’t know where you are, you can’t figure out how to get where you need to go.
While there are certainly reasons for pro-lifers to celebrate, it’s important for those who advocate for the unborn to understand what really happened in the election. In the latest episode of the Care Net Care Cast, Care Net CEO, Roland Warren, and Chief Outreach Officer, Vincent DiCaro explore the nuances of this election for the pro-life movement. (Listen to the full CareCast on SoundCloud, iTunes, and Spotify.)
A Trump victory in the White House plus a Republican Senate and, what looks like, a Republican majority in the House should mean that there won’t be any new, national-level efforts to increase access to abortion or to legislate any new radical agendas on the “abortion rights” front. Some are even viewing this “red wave” as a rejection of pro-choice extremism.
But to those who champion issues of life, the nationwide results are not as much of a victory as they may initially seem. Just because the majority of the voting population chose Trump over Harris, it doesn’t mean that they rejected abortion. In fact, Trump essentially took abortion off the table, making it a state’s rights issue. Indeed, exit polls showed that “moderate pro-choice voters” leaned heavily toward Donald Trump.
And, even though political ads made it seem like the two parties were worlds apart on this issue, and in many states—like Texas—the Republican position was severely distorted—at a national level, abortion rights didn’t need to be an issue in the election because the states already held all the power. This allowed voters to act like they were going to Burger King: “Have it your way” – you can choose Donald Trump and abortion rights.
What was missing from previous years was a pro-life position in the platform of the Republican Party. While previous GOP platforms spoke out on the party’s desire and goals to protect the unborn, the rewritten 2024 platform backed away from the issue. Instead, it took out any reference to an unborn child having an inalienable right to life.
What remains is a call to each state, rather than Congress, to weigh in on issues pertaining to life. It’s not a pro-life or a pro-choice position. Instead, it’s more of a federalist position. Republicans will protect and defend however the people in each state decide on the issue of life. The issue is left to the will of the people, instead of being tied to truth. This of course means that the Republican Party, from a national level, now supports what the states of California and New York decide on abortion. This is vastly different from where the Republican Party stood 40, even 8, years ago
As candidates debated the issues, the state’s rights stance gave politicians at every level a place to stand (or hide). Though some candidates took a stand against “late term” abortions, it’s important to note that abortions after 20 weeks account for only 1 percent of all abortions. Standing against late-term abortions only is a stance that allows for 99 percent of all abortions.
What’s even more disturbing is how many significant and leading pro-life organizations supported and endorsed the Republican platform including President Trump’s stance on abortion being illegal after 15 weeks. It’s important to understand the real numbers here. These pro-life organizations supported a GOP platform that allowed for 96.1 percent of abortions take place before this 15-week gestational milestone. That doesn’t sound very pro-life, does it?
Yet, the lesson from this election for Republican politicians may have been clearly taught. You don’t have to be pro-life to win elections. Or, rather, you don’t have to be pro-life until 15-weeks gestation, which arguably is more like being “pro-choice light.” Allowing for 96 percent of abortions to remain legal certainly sounds more pro-choice than pro-life, doesn’t it?
Candidly, pro-life organizations and leaders in the Republican Party came to the bargaining table and decided that winning the election was more important than protecting lives. Though as Christians, it’s hard to understand how negotiations around protecting life could have even been an option. It seems like the pro-life movement didn’t come to the table asking for a total ban on abortions. It’s difficult to understand how anyone pro-life could have agreed to a fifteen-week ban as a positive move in the protection of life.
Accordingly, the worst news for the pro-life movement is that Republican candidates now see that they can win elections without taking a pro-life stance.
We’re a Pro-Choice Country
On election day, voters in ten states had the opportunity to vote to protect the unborn or expand abortion rights in their home states. Out of ten statewide initiatives, voters enshrined abortion rights in seven states. Red states Florida, Nebraska, and South Dakota voted for greater protections on the lives of the unborn. Arizona, Colorado, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, and New York all passed measures to keep abortion legal, covered by health insurance plans, or to amend their state constitutions to allow for abortion until fetal viability, or in some cases up until birth with no exceptions. But it’s important to note that Nevada, Montana, Arizona, and Missouri simultaneously supported Trump and abortion rights.
The total number of votes cast across these ten state ballot initiatives was right under thirty-two million. With 60 percent of these votes supporting expanded or enshrined abortion rights, it’s safe to say that 60 percent of Americans chose abortion on election day—some choosing to keep it legal up until birth with no exceptions.
Even in Florida where Governor Ron DeSantis did a herculean job trying to fight for the life issue, the ballot initiative to expand abortion rights only failed by 3 percent. The majority of voters (57%) chose abortion.
The overall landscape looks like this. To date, only thirteen states have complete protections in place for the unborn, while eight states have laws to keep abortion legal for anywhere between six to eighteen weeks gestation. This means twenty-nine U.S. states, more than half the country, allows for legal abortions, many up to fetal viability, but some (seven states) allow abortion at any stage of pregnancy.
Where Does the Pro-Life Movement Go From Here?
The dilemma for the pro-life movement is that we’ve spent too many decades hoping that voting right would make things better. But Roe v. Wade was overturned, and it’s clear from the data that a political solution will not save the unborn.
As Roland talks about in his new book, “The Alternative to Abortion,” the issue is about protecting the innocent and the vulnerable. But what happened to Pontius Pilate when he was presented the opportunity to stand for the innocent or to appease the angry crowd? He chose to appease the crowd. He crucified Jesus because that’s what the people demanded. Jesus didn’t expect Pilate to save him. It wasn’t enough for the crowd to see Jesus crucified. They agreed to the release of Barabbas, a murderer. Again, Pilate couldn’t make a just decision based on who was innocent and who was guilty. Politicians are bound to follow the will of the people.
That’s why our only chance at changing the politics again is to change the crowd. And, more specifically, the only hope to see the number of abortions decrease in this country is to reach the Church. One look at the numbers shows that Christians, those in the pews on Sundays, are also voting to codify abortion rights on Tuesdays. These ballot initiatives, statistically, could not have succeeded without Christian votes. In Ohio, the exit polling revealed that there was a high percentage of Christians who voted for securing abortion rights in the Ohio state constitution.
Similarly, in Arizona 61 percent of voters voted for abortion to be legal until 22 weeks, the age of viability, allowing for 99 percent of all abortions in that state. If 67 percent of Arizonans profess to be Christians (according to Pew Research Center), and only 39 percent of Arizona voters voted against this initiative, mathematically it’s easy to see how many Christians are voting in support of abortion rights.
That’s why we have to start in our own pews. According to the Guttmacher Institute, 54 percent of women who have abortions profess to be either Catholic or Protestant. We can’t win the states if we don’t win the pews. And, when you’ve lost the pews, you’ve lost the polls.
Of course, it’s important to recognize how there are some protections for the pro-life movement that will make things better for even our pregnancy center workers now that the Republicans are in office again. Hopefully, religious liberties will remain intact and we’ll see less government overreach, such as the locking up of grandmothers who pray outside abortion clinics, or of government trying to shut down pregnancy centers.
So, while we celebrate that there may be more “pro-life friendly” elected officials in place this January, it’s vital that, as Christians, we recognize we cannot rely on political solutions to protect life. Our calling is higher than just getting “the right candidate” elected. Our calling is not just to protect the lives of the unborn, but to be Pro Abundant Life. We must double our efforts to care for people at risk of choosing abortion. We must mobilize our churches to be places that are safe for men and women facing unplanned pregnancies, and places where these men and women can get the support and encouragement they need to not just choose life for their baby, but to choose abundant life for themselves and embrace God’s high calling of parenthood and discipleship.
Our hope is where it has always been. It’s in Jesus. He says in John 10:10 that He came that we may have life more abundantly. Jesus wasn’t just pro-life, he was Pro Abundant Life. That’s why we use this terminology at Care Net. We have the best chance of defeating abortion when we do it the way God has called us to do it.
Want to learn more? Grab your copy of Roland’s new book, The Alternative to Abortion: Why We Must Be Pro-Abundant Life on Amazon.