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Does Voting for Pro-Life Politicians Actually Help Fight Abortion?

A common approach to try to sway Pro-Life voters to abandon their support of Pro-Life Candidates is to marginalize both the ability they have and the effectiveness they can have in actually affecting Pro-Life policy.  In other words, they don’t try to change the voters view on the issue, but on how they vote on the issue.  I address a few of the more common objections here.

Objection 1: Roe v. Wade won’t be overturned anyway, right?

It is popular today to appeal to pro-life voters with the logic that since Roe has been law for almost 50 years it probably won’t be overturned and therefore Republicans are just paying lip-service on this issue.  This is a straw man.  It is not as if the only thing that is at stake is trying to overturn Roe, which never seems to happen and even if it did, it would only leave the issue up to states.  There are myriad of other abortion issues and restrictions on the table that can be affected even if abortion isn’t banned or Roe isn’t overturned.

  • Limiting abortions to the 1st Trimester (Heart-beat Laws)
  • Administering life-saving measures to babies who survive abortions
  • Upholding the Hyde Amendment (Banning Tax-payer funding for abortions)
  • Requiring parental notification for teens (the largest category of abortions)
  • Requiring counseling services and informed consent prior to abortion
  • Requiring Waiting periods
  • Banning abortion as a business, and upholding bans on the sale and use of fetal parts.
  • The Potential for a Constitutional Amendment defining Life and Rights for the Unborn, which would undo Roe and apply to all States.
  • Just to name a few…

The Left wants abortion up to birth and to refuse babies who survive abortions healthcare to survive. The right is working on many avenues to make sure women get the help they need in order to make this decision as long as it is still legal.

Objection 2: Don’t Policies under Democrats actually lead to a reduction in Abortions?

It is true that Abortion rates decreased under President Obama.  The left argues that it is access to healthcare and availability of free or covered birth control that has led to the decrease.  Left there, that is selective editing. Abortion rates have steadily decreased in this country since 1980, seeing the lowest level in 2017 while Trump was in office.1  And while the Obama years saw a decrease in abortion, to credit that to an Obama presidency is to ignore all of the restrictions passed by Republican Governors and State Senators and Representatives through state laws from the list under objection #1 above.

Admittedly, this is all very complex and to argue from causality surrounding healthcare is extremely difficult. But, let’s be clear. The left wants to use the courts to undo those state laws restricting abortion in Republican states.  In other words, the gains at the state-level to curb abortion is sought to be undone at the Federal level in the election of U.S. Senators, Representatives, and the President.

But even if the restrictions put in place by Republican run states are ignored and it is true that somehow the counterintuitive philosophy that less restrictions on abortion leads to fewer abortions (it isn’t), the point is not to simply reduce abortions (from 800,000 to 600,000?). The point is to have recognition that this is Murder and to one day end abortion and to provide the care and counseling for women who are considering making this decision.

The idea that Democrats are good on the issue of  life because abortions were lower in our country under a Democratic president (disregarding that it was Republican-run state efforts to restrict abortion), while at the same time advocating for abortions up to birth, no parental notification, no care for babies who survive abortions, and no informed consent for women is absurd.   Compare that mentality with recent movements of injustice. Would it fly to say “under Republican run cities there are less cases of Police Brutality than in Democratic run cities, so just vote for Republicans and stop trying to eliminate Police Brutality.”   Of course not, because any Police Brutality is too much.  All injustice should be fought. We aren’t satisfied in issues of race to say that “things are better” and we shouldn’t be satisfied when over a half million babies are killed and people are calling it good and ok, just because there has been a slight decrease.

In what world is any murder ok?  Let alone mass genocide?  More babies are killed through abortion in 2 years in America than through all the wars America has ever fought.   Pre-born babies are humans, people created in the image of God.  Killing even one is one too many. Two babies were just killed in the time it took you to read this article.

For Further reading: https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justin-taylor/the-case-against-pro-lifers-voting-for-joe-biden/

Other Objections

Of course there are other objections leveled at Pro-Life voters that also don’t try to change their view on abortion, but rather on how they vote.  This article only addressed these two which have seemed to gain traction in the last couple of years.  There are also a variety of ad hominem attacks against Pro-Life voters which seek to shame them into changing their vote, such as calling them “One-Issue Voters” and saying “You only care about life as long as its in the womb.”  I address those ad hominem attacks in the article, The Myth of Pro-Life Voters Being One-Issue Voters.

(1) https://www.businessinsider.com/abortion-rate-reached-lowest-level-since-1973-7-charts-show-2019-9

George Sayour
George Sayour

George is Senior Pastor of Meadowview Reformed Presbyterian
Church (PCA) in Lexington, NC. When he's not pastoring or writing, he's fishing, kayaking and spending time with his family.

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