On Wednesday evening, ostensibly pro-life presidential candidates danced around the question of whether they would support basic federal protections for innocent babies at six weeks.
In an election cycle where the silent majority are desperate for leadership, where the silent in the womb are desperate for a protector—Nikki Haley insisted she was “unapologetically pro-life” while declining to support a federal heartbeat law. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis tried to deflect scrutiny to Democrats’ abortion extremism. Only former Vice President Mike Pence and Sen. Tim Scott (S.C.) supported, at minimum, a 15-week federal ban – which would still allow for abortions in more than nine of ten cases.
This is a trap that pro-abortionists have laid, and an alarming share of the pro-life movement is caught in it. We’re haggling over the amount of mass death we find acceptable: Will we ban abortion at 15 weeks, a point that still allows nearly all abortions to occur legally? Will we ban abortion at 6 weeks, once a heartbeat is detected? And if one or the other, why?
Perhaps more to the point, why do even self-identified pro-life Americans lack the confidence to demand legal protections for babies from the moment of conception – when there is virtually absolute scientific consensus that a human life is present? After all, our counterparts aren’t squeamish about supporting abortion without any restrictions at all, even while lacking any coherent scientific or moral foundation for their position.
Some of us squirm at the idea of “fetal pain,” but not at the same preborn child’s gruesome death earlier in development. Some of us think it’s acceptable to kill a child before we can detect his or her heartbeat, but not after. For some reason, many in the pro-life movement have adopted the belief that a debate over gestational limits to abortion is a resounding victory for life in the womb.
It’s not.
There are two things GOP contenders should keep in mind as we approach a new cycle of kingmaking and horse-race politics. First, being unreservedly pro-life is a winning issue, not a losing one — despite the media narrative to the contrary. Second, protecting innocent children from the moment of conception is the only morally consistent position.
Take Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who won his gubernatorial race by the biggest margin in 40 years, as one example. The unapologetically pro-life Texas Gov. Greg Abbott trounced progressive challenger Beto O’Rourke to win a third term. A year before that, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin pulled off a shocking victory in a solidly blue state without betraying preborn life in the process. But being boldly, emphatically pro-life is a winning message.
Of course, these messages get lost if you’re an average consumer of news. Headlines insist that Republicans “lose on abortion,” that a “predicted ‘red wave’ crashed into wall of abortion rights,” that voters “deliver[ed a] ringing endorsement” of abortion.
But what actually happened last election cycle? In many cases, pro-abortion progressives won where they were paired with a weak or avoidant “pro-life” GOP candidate.
Take Minnesota’s 2022 gubernatorial race as an example, where Democratic Gov. Tim Walz handily beat GOP challenger Scott Jensen. Jensen said he’d ban abortion before Dobbs was announced, then later said abortion was a “protected constitutional right” and not a political issue he intended to touch. “Let’s focus on the issues that matter,” he concluded in the campaign ad, cradling a newborn.
This image leaves the Republican voter wondering what possibly does matter to a candidate who can so flippantly dismiss an entire swath of the Americans he hopes to one day govern – those still in the womb. A candidate like this, who is ready to relinquish his most vulnerable constituents to the same fate as his political opponent, is no pro-life candidate at all. They sacrifice their principles on the altar of an ill-conceived political strategy when it matters most.
And the tragic irony is that their abandonment of preborn life doesn’t win them votes. It loses them, and scores of failed GOP campaigns can attest to that.
We know that the GOP base is strongly motivated to vote when abortion is an issue. We know the base can deliver victories for Republican candidates. Give them a candidate who calls out the depravity of abortion and champions life from conception. The lane is open, waiting to be filled.
Would-be GOP contenders need to give their voters a reason to show up. Don’t run from the most important human rights issue of the election cycle. It’s contemptible, and it’s bad politics.
Chelsey Youman is the Texas State Director and National Legislative Advisor for Human Coalition Action.