In the dying embers of a movement, a much darker truth which lay underneath it is revealed. Abortion advocates have shed the “pro-choice” mantle and now openly embrace what was the implicit goal of their movement all along: abortion. Not “choice” — abortion.
Any moderates who once supported the movement out of commitment to compromise ought to be alarmed by abortion advocates’ escalatory tactics and arguments in recent weeks.
When “pro-choice” was coined as a political stance, it ostensibly represented a group of Americans who believed that women should be able, with some limitations, to choose for themselves the outcome of their pregnancy. This seemed plausible to many at the time as a middle ground position, and polls indicate it still does resonate with many Americans.
When Bill Clinton ran for president in 1992, he repeatedly said abortion should be “safe, legal, and rare.” His Democratic Party has since called for taxpayer-funded abortion in its last two party platforms; the most recent platform says that “every woman should be able to access high-quality reproductive health care services, including safe and legal abortion.”
While many Americans support legal abortion in some form, polls show the tide is turning and that most now support protecting children in the womb throughmost of pregnancy. Americans don’t support taxpayer funding for it in most cases, nor do they support the extreme pro-abortion policies we’re seeing now.
Three-quarters of Americans say health care professionals with religious objections should be exempt from performing abortions, for example. Almost three-quarters of Americans object to using taxpayer funds to export abortion policies abroad—including a majority of those who identify as “pro-choice.” Yet the Biden administration is rolling back conscience protections for health care workers and funding international abor
A radical pro-abortion regime was never what many “pro-choice” voters wanted. But in the face of real limitations to abortion access, pro-abortion activists are growing frantic. Desperation prompts honesty, and their “pro-choice” word game has ended, along with their appeal to moderates.
Some activists are teaching others how to build a do-it-yourself abortion kit - and, how to make abortion pills at home. Multiple bills have been introduced that would legally advance infanticide.
They also actively thwart resources that would enable abortion-seeking women to actually have a choice besides abortion. They ban pregnancy resource centers and block or attack pro-woman legislation while trying to steer women into their clinics or supercenters. Abortion is much more profitable than other services such as dispensing emergency contraceptives—their own numbers reveal this disparity.
This is not the behavior of a healthy or ethical movement. It’s not the behavior of a group of people committed simply to maternal choice, or convicted that abortion is some sort of necessary evil. Why don’t they support empowering women with medically accurate information about the child developing in their wombs? Instead of treating women paternalistically, they should believe in and equip them to actually make a choice for the life of their child.
I believe every living human should be protected from abortion, without reservation. I know that the choice should always be made in favor and defense of human life. And a fundamental part of that stance, and of inhabiting a complicated economic and political milieu, is being pro-woman.
After all, there are two lives involved in every pregnancy: that of the mother and that of the child. If we want to achieve real change on behalf of abortion-seeking mothers, we ought to do everything possible to support them. There are many pro-life organizations already doing this work — including my own, Human Coalition.
But these vulnerable mothers need your help. They need all of us to understand the terrible stakes of the war that pro-abortionists are waging. Most importantly, these mothers and their children need all of us to understand that the “safe, legal and rare” mantra we’ve been peddled for so long simply never existed in practice.
The abortion movement is withering and, in doing so, is showing their hand. Pro-abortionists do not want to protect women. They do not want to preserve choice or liberty. They do not want to preserve privacy. They want to continue to make money off of killing the preborn children of women who are in their moment of desperation.
And now, facing the threat of abortion restrictions, they’re finally being honest about it. So take them at their word. Take the courageous step of reconciling your own thoughts with the reality of the abortion movement. My hope is you will lean into truth and consider making our world a place where mothers thrive alongside their children instead of falsely pitted against them.
Chelsey Youman is the Director of Public Policy at Human Coalition. She serves the pro-life coalition by advocating for pro-life policies and jurisprudence, mobilizing local grassroots to strengthen the pro-life movement and its footprint.