The Elusive Prize: The Pro-Life Movement at 43

In my prior post, I explored the phenomenon of the pro-life movement - stronger than ever 43 years after Roe v. Wade. Equally extraordinary, however, is the merely incremental progress it has made in all that time. Despite all the energy, all the political intensity, all the ink spilled and all the money expended, why hasn't the pro-life movement achieved more?

1) We've hitched our wagon to an elephant. That is, the Republican Party. (I say this as someone who has yet to vote for a Democrat). Consider the debate over the Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare"): several pro-life Democrats, who fought hard to exclude abortion from the bill, ultimately voted for it based upon Barack Obama's promise that federal funding of abortion would be excluded by executive order. The pro-life movement promptly turned upon those congressmen for "betraying" their principles. In the ensuing efforts - largely successful - to vote these legislators out, many pro-life organizations referred to the bill as "the government take-over of health care," thus showing their true colors: regardless of whether abortion coverage was included or excluded, they simply didn't like anything resembling socialized medicine. What does that have to do with being pro-life?

Some of the most left-wing individuals I have met expressed deep ambivalence over abortion, if not outright opposition. Pro-lifers need to decide: are we truly committed to ending abortion above all else and building whatever coalition is necessary to do it? Is it actually more important than taxes, gun rights, Obamacare, foreign policy, the national debt, or any other issue?

National elections rarely turn upon controversial social issues; politicians avoid them and voters often have the economy or national security on their minds. To the degree that the pro-life movement is restricted to one political party, it's fortunes will rise and fall based upon the winds of the economy.

2) We have failed to confront racism. It's been argued that abortion perpetuates racism: 35% of abortions are performed on African-Americans, even though they represent only 12% of the population. This is consistent with the expressed desires of Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger. But the converse is also true: racism perpetuates abortion. Sometimes it seems as if Americans aren't sure if they want that many Black and Hispanic children around. Witness, for example, Donald Trump's desire to deport millions of Hispanic children with American citizenship because of how their parents came here. Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, who identified as pro-life, thought it was a great idea. But why deport them, when you can abort them?

When economist Steven Levitt claimed in Freakonomics that abortion reduces crime by eliminating minority children, pro-life conservatives called him out for racism. But they have been extremely reluctant to face down the demon of racism itself, or the structural injustices that drive so many Black women to the abortion clinic when there seems to be no other choice. And concern for the lives of Black children seems to evaporate about the time those children grow up and face police brutality.

As the Apostle John stated, "If anyone says, 'I love God,' and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen" (1 John 4:20). Similarly, how can we claim to love the unborn children whom we have not seen, if we do not love the Mexican immigrants in our neighborhood whom we have seen? When we fail to confront the dehumanizing language used to describe Hispanic immigrants, we are silently supporting the dehumanization of their unborn. Along with the political decisions noted above, this failure has prevented ethnic groups who are overwhelmingly pro-life in their views from avidly supporting the movement.

3) We don't acknowledge miscarriage as a death. The only credible argument that pro-choicers have made against the personhood of the unborn is that we do not hold a funeral when a woman miscarries. In fact, the typical response to miscarriage - even in the church - reflects the abortion views of mainstream American society. We acknowledge a loss of some sort, but not the loss of a human being. My wife and I suffered 5 miscarriages; few people acted as if anyone had died. 

The experiences of our friends have confirmed this. Millions of women (and men) carry this unresolved pain. Yet the most healing thing for us was to hold a funeral. To do so is the only advice I ever give to anyone who has miscarried. There is no simpler, more compassionate, less-controversial, inexpensive, and more effective way to build a culture of life than to genuinely grieve with those who have lost unborn children and to acknowledge that loss as the death of a human being.

That's what it will take to finally slay the dragon of abortion: support pro-life Democrats, love our Black and Hispanic neighbors who are already born (as well as those in the womb), and grieve miscarriages. The end of this evil is in sight - but only if we are willing to do what it takes to win.

Alive and Kicking: the Pro-Life Movement at 43

This should be over by now. We should have packed our bags and gone home. Yet here we are, 43 years after Roe v. Wade - which was supposed to settle the matter - and the pro-life movement is stronger than ever. 

Normally, even the most controversial decisions are eventually accepted as law, and people adjust to the new reality. For a Supreme Court decision, even a controversial one, to remain so deeply unpopular and divisive for so long is unprecedented. For example, Brown v. Board of Education - which struck down school segregation in 1954 - was almost completely accepted within a few years, and the last vestiges of resistance flamed out after the failed presidential run of George Wallace in 1968. By 1996, it wasn't even an issue; no major political candidate even suggested the Court had been wrong. (It didn't hurt that the decision had been unanimous).

So why won't this issue go away? What accounts for the remarkable persistence, and even growth, of the pro-life movement? 

Subversion of the democratic process. Roe v. Wade stepped into a vigorous debate raging through the legislatures of nearly every state, and attempted to cut it off. Today, the United States is one of only 4 countries that allows abortion at any time for any reason; the others are Canada, China, and North Korea. Yet 55% of Americans think abortion should be illegal in most circumstances, and 68% think it should be at least somewhat restricted. As a committed pro-lifer myself, I readily admit that if our laws simply included reasonable restrictions on abortion that reflected the desires of the majority of the American public, the pro-life movement would probably fizzle out. The extraordinary and persistent discrepancy between the will of the people and actual law is the driving force that fuels the abortion debate.

Science. With 3-dimensional real-time ultrasound, we can see babies in the womb, and they don't look like blobs of tissue. They look like babies. As medicine progresses, the viability limit of pre-term infants continues to be pushed back further and further. And it is inescapable that, biologically speaking, life begins at conception. As more Americans learn genetics in their high school biology class, fewer can claim (as Barack Obama famously did) that the question of when life begins is "above my pay grade."

Pro-lifers have more babies. Never underestimate the significance of the obvious. It is easier to pass on your beliefs when you have children, than when you kill your offspring. 

Engagement with women in need. Women who contemplate abortion are not stupid. They know they are being forced into it - which doesn't sound like much of a "choice" - and usually by a man who has abandoned them. As John Rankin observes, abortion is the greatest enabler of male chauvinism. And the difference between an abortion clinic that tries to sell you something and demands cash upfront, and a non-profit resource center that listens and gives you information - and never asks for a dime - is obvious. Every time pro-life volunteers help someone choose life, they gain two converts: a grateful mother, and a little boy or girl who otherwise wouldn't have made it into this world. 

A gradual approach. In contrast to pro-abortion extremism, pro-lifers have recently pushed for such sensible policies as requiring abortion clinics to have admitting privileges at hospitals and to be inspected regularly, only letting physicians perform abortions, ending the gruesome practice of partial-birth abortion, allowing parents to have a say in whether their teenage daughter gets an abortion, and requiring women to be fully informed of the development of their baby and the risks of the procedure. These common sense policies have contributed to the closure of 53 abortion facilities in 2015 alone.

When undercover videos that showed executives of Planned Parenthood (the nation's largest abortion provider) selling baby body parts, even long-standing pro-choicers re-examined their beliefs. Bill Clinton famously said that abortion should be "safe, legal and rare" - but then decided that 1 out of 3 ain't bad. Are we approaching a tipping point - where abortion remains barely legal (and more safe) but will become truly rare?

There are reasons for hope. And also reasons for pessimism...