#ItSeensToMe...if we evangelicals were pro-life-for-life, we would look for ways to empower/equip those who choose abortion for primarily economic reasons.
What could happen to the abortion stats if the Church became an advocate rather that an adversary to those trapped in systemic poverty?
#ProLife has to be more than a preaching point or a taking a political stand.
Consider the commentary of friend/colleague John H. Armstrong:
Abortion rates in America continue to fall. It is unlikely that this will change regardless of who becomes the next president. This will be true unless Covid-19 undercuts the American economy in a big way, which actually seems likely at this point. The available data says that abortion rates and the absolute number of abortions have both fallen consistently for the past decade. Both are now at their lowest level since the Roe v. Wade decision in 1973.
Abortion rates, and the number of abortions in the United States, are usually not determined by abortion policies at the federal or state level. What influences them the most? Economic forces. Empirically, the more people are forced into subsistence-level existence, the more abortions will increase.
If this is true, and it most definitely is true, then the best pro-life policy would be to lift more poor people out of desperate poverty. Here is a truly significant pro-life agenda that will accomplish what the pro-life movement desires. Give people the financial support they need and you will save unborn lives. Help people provide for children and they are more likely to desire them. But the GOP runs on pro-life as an wedge issue and then does next to nothing to really help the poor. Go figure. Maybe the pro-life movement needs some new energy that will move us away from the political rhetoric, energy that actually addresses how we can really help people AND save lives?
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