Pro-Lifers Must Continue to Show They Care about More Than Just Ending Abortion

Mark Rodgers and Clapham Affiliate, Kiki Bradley write for National Review: "One year after Dobbs, the challenge of ensuring a culture of life looms.The stakes could not be higher."

The clock is ticking for pro-life leaders and politicians to convince the public that we are as pro-life as we are anti-abortion. 

One year ago, the Supreme Court ruled in Dobbs v. Jackson that states, and possibly even the federal government, can regulate abortion. We wrote a few days afterward that pro-life leaders need to show, not just say, that we care for women and their children. We suggested that we lead the way by advocating a tapestry of policies that ensure that women faced with the difficult decision to carry a child to term or face economic hardship are fully supported.

The Dobbs decision has radically realigned the electorate with regard to self-identification. Prior to the decision, in 2021, self-identification was largely split, with 49 percent pro-choice and 46 percent pro-life, and two years earlier the numbers were reversed. However, after the ruling, self-identification realigned to 55 percent pro-choice, the highest percentage since 1995, and only 39 percent pro-life.

Some analysts suggested that the election results of 2022 were affected by this realignment. According to the Cook Political Report, “abortion mattered most to the kinds of swing voters who Republicans should have been able to win over, given President Biden’s low approval ratings and the real-life squeeze rising prices were having on voters.” Surveys “found that swing independent women were not only turned off by the GOP position on abortion but didn’t see the Republican Party as stronger on the economy either.”

Did this translate in the ballot box? According to exit polls, voters on Election Day in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and other critical states ranked abortion, not inflation or crime, as the most important issue in the midterms.

One of our concerns is that this realignment will be cemented unless pro-life leaders prioritize more than just further restrictions on abortion access.

After our essay was published, we hosted a call with National Review Institute and a number of pro-life organizations to survey their interest in a set of policies we put forward for their consideration, ranging from the Pregnant Worker Fairness Act and ensuring health-care coverage for pregnant women to paid leave and increasing the child tax credit. We found that most individuals on the call supported almost all of the provisions.

Read full article at National Review