Week 2: Faith, Freedom, and Fetuses
Hello readers! It’s Week 2 and time to dive into the foundations of the modern (1970-present) anti-abortion movement.
The conservative, traditional crusade against abortion that we’re familiar with today is far from original anti-abortion sentiments. In fact, evangelicals and other protestants were largely unaffiliated with politics and indifferent to abortion until the 1970s. It was only when abortion became a useful tool for political unity that conservative activists and religious leaders began to take a stance. The foundation of the modern “pro-life” movement is rooted in politics, not religious conviction. But how did religion, politics, and abortion become so entangled?
After the Civil Rights Movement brought much-needed liberal and social change, the Republican Party was searching for a new way to rally and impassion voters. Conservative political strategists like Paul Weyrich recognized abortion as a perfect issue to mobilize religious communities. But Weyrich’s goal went beyond the elimination of abortion, he wanted to create a powerful constituency, a voting block to push for traditional values.
In 1979, Weyrich joined forces with Jerry Falwell Sr., founder of Liberty College and televangelist, to create Moral Majority, a conservative religious organization that would become a political powerhouse. As part of the emerging Religious Right, Moral Majority worked to change laws, elect sympathetic politicians, and reshape the Republican Platform.
This shift from political indifference to aggressive anti-abortion activism wasn’t instantaneous. Organizations like Moral Majority and other evangelical leaders like Francis Schaeffer reframed abortion as a moral crisis. Shaeffer’s 1979 book Whatever Happened to the Human Race? argued that abortion was not just a political issue, but a threat to human life. This ideology spread rapidly. By 1983, President Ronald Reagan, once a supporter of liberal abortion policies, solidified his relationship with the Religious Right by publishing Abortion and the Conscious of the Nation, a fervently anti-abortion book. Together Reagan, Moral Majority, and other leaders ushered in a new era of politics.
In 1976, the Republican Party officially endorsed an anti-abortion constitutional amendment for the first time, making abortion a defining partisan topic. From then on, the anti-abortion movement and Republican Party have been tightly linked, driven both by the agendas of powerful Christian leaders. While many pro-life supporters genuinely believe in their cause, that doesn’t justify the movement’s actions. Conservative strategists crafted this movement to establish political dominance. As a result, it’s immensely difficult for people to access a valid medical procedure and many women are left in difficult situations that force them to give up their personal lives and goals.
Stay tuned for next week, where I’ll either talk about the abortion discussion in the early 1900s or about the effects of the modern anti-abortion movement. Let me know which topic you’d prefer!
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