Time to Redouble Our Efforts
By Maria McFadden Maffucci

I do not believe the pro-life movement has failed overall, in the sense that what we have been doing is wrong, or that what we have been aiming for is hopeless. I believe that pro-life individuals have failed to make the protection of the unborn an actual priority. The current election was not “about” abortion; many who voted for Obama voted for him in spite of, not because of, his position on abortion. I would argue that we have not lost the ground we have gained in converting the culture, and, in a broad sense, the pro-life movement achieves part of its objective every single day when a mother turns away from abortion and a baby is saved. Lives are saved one by one; that is why the incremental gains we have achieved matter.

It is true that many good people are working to change the culture, and it is imperative that we all work even harder to do that now, no matter our politics. But I think it is at best naïve, at worst, deceitful, to state a hopeful expectation that we will see a decline in the number of abortions in the Obama administration. The 2008 Democratic platform statement on abortion purposefully took out the word “rare,” as in “safe, legal and rare.” It declares not just affirmation of Roe, but “unequivocal” support, and “opposition to any and all efforts to weaken or undermine that right.” Mr. Obama has a perfect pro-abortion voting record, and has made big promises, such as this—in a speech to Planned Parenthood (July 07)— “…[T]he first thing I’d do as president is sign the Freedom of Choice Act” (FOCA). If passed, FOCA would make null all the restrictions the pro-life movement has achieved, like parental consent for abortion (still needed for dispensing an aspirin in school, by the way). So: little or no restrictions, abortionists eager to make more money in a down economy, a new administration that has made ensuring a woman’s (and a girl’s) “right” to abortion a priority…this will add up to fewer abortions?

I cannot see the argument that the Obama platform proposal “to strongly support a woman’s decision to have a child” through “income support” and other aid (though these things would be good if actually provided) will reduce abortions to a great extent. Roe v. Wade did not come about because women in America could not feed their children.  Abortion became a “woman’s right” when some people decided that a woman’s right to control her reproductive life—for any of a myriad of reasons—trumped an unborn human’s right to life. If that ideology is ascendant, how are the chances for the unborn to rise?

Obviously, legal strategies will have to be revisited if FOCA does pass. But I think the most important strategy to have now is to resist those who are calling for the movement to admit defeat. We have had a setback, so now we must redouble our efforts in education, in activism, and in aid for pregnancy centers and post-abortion outreach.   

Maria McFadden Maffucci is editor of the Human Life Review.