CV NEWS FEED // Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC) President Ryan T. Anderson is calling on pro-lifers to level up their approach to the political reality of abortion.
In his contribution to First Things’ June 2024 Symposium, “Pro-Life Politics After Dobbs,” Anderson points out that “the pro-life side is consistently outspent by wide margins,” in the political world.
Although pro-life politicians have “fared well in elections,” Anderson observed, “every ballot initiative on abortion since Dobbs has produced a resounding defeat for the pro-life cause.”
“There are lessons here,” he continued:
With ballot initiatives, pro-abortion activists posing as media personalities control the messaging. The pro-life side is consistently outspent by wide margins.
We even lose a portion of our natural base: In Ohio, one-third of voters who went to church at least once a week voted for abortion. This is why the pro-abortion side will continue to bring ballot initiatives in states that pass pro-life laws at the statehouse.
As CatholicVote previously reported, Ohioans passed the constitutional amendment known as Issue 1 during the special elections on November 7, 2023, enshrining abortion access up to nine months of pregnancy in Ohio’s constitution. Notably, pro-choice advocates installed 30 billboards promoting the amendment leading up to Nov. 7.
“It does the pro-life cause no good to pass a protective law at the statehouse that will be replaced with abortion-on-demand at the ballot box,” Anderson stated. “We need simultaneously to take current political reality seriously and work to shape it for the future.”
The EPPC president further emphasized the need for political leaders to become outspoken, and “not to run away from the abortion issue” in the public sphere.
“Courage has two opposing vices: cowardice and rashness,” Anderson concluded:
Sadly, we are seeing cowardice in the refusal of some pro-lifers to enact protective laws, and rashness in the refusal of others to make such laws sustainable. Taking moral and political reality seriously entails a recognition that we must uphold moral truth but also shape political reality.
