The Decline of the Pro-Life Movement
With the overturning of Roe v. Wade, and with the sidelining of anti-abortion policies by the GOP in favor of expanding child tax credits and other such economic interventions, one might be wondering what on earth has happened to the pro-life movement? Ever since the 1980 election and the Reagan movement, over four decades of political relevance, they have never been sidelined by the GOP until now. The usual pro-lifers—conservative and moderate pastors, their churchgoers, political commentators, national conservatives, and so on—have been speculating that Trump can just count on the pro-life vote and ignore their demands, which have become electorally unpopular. Some more radical breakaways from the coalition have advocated voting for various third parties. Others have entirely rejected the pro-life label, which they think to be synonymous with traitors and grifters, preferring instead to be called abolitionists.
While there are certain truths to each analysis, I think a major element of the history of the pro-life movement has been overlooked. The character of the GOP has irreversibly changed. The former ruling coalition, the National Review Right and the Neoconservatives, have either died off, become irrelevant, or even switched sides. Their last concerted action was to firmly position themselves as the enemies of President Trump, who has since completely dominated the GOP and marginalized them. I would argue that the pro-life movement, having thrown their lot in with this now-dead Neoconservative coalition, is being sidelined with the Neoconservatives.
Pro-Lifers and the GOP
The question of being “pro-life” is relatively recent in United States political history, only becoming an issue between the 1950s and the year 1970—beforehand, abortion was fully banned in each state. Being as the pro-life movement was a response to the liberalizing of abortion laws, exacerbated by the Supreme Court’s national liberalization of all state laws, the movement is young. At the time of its inception, and after the Carter campaign, most of its leaders decided to latch onto the GOP, just in time for the immensely successful Reagan campaign.
Allying with the Reagan Republicans sealed th
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