Why pro-lifers keep losing and what to do about it
If a sports team had a 0 out of 7 record, do you think this unbroken losing streak might indicate the team needs to change direction if it hopes to improve future prospects?
Since Roe vs. Wade was overturned in 2022, returning to states the ability to outlaw abortion, seven states have voted on abortion-related measures.
Out of those seven states, all seven voted to legally protect abortion. Some of those states (like California) weren’t terribly surprising given their liberal-leaning focus. But in other states (such as Kentucky and Kansas) where legalized abortion was upheld, a sizable conservative population exists. This leads observers to wonder why even those red state voters embraced a pro-abortion position.
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In analyzing this unbroken string of pro-life losses, I believe one of the main contributing factors is what’s commonly called “preaching to the choir.”
We’re all familiar with this metaphor suggesting Christians spend more time preaching the Gospel to themselves than proclaiming the good news to those who have yet to hear and believe.
A similar scenario often applies with elections. Pro-life groups spend large amounts of time and money on get-out-the-vote efforts encouraging pro-life voters to head to the polls on election day.
But just as preaching the Gospel to believers fails to get the message to those who need to hear it most, spending most of our political capital on reaching those already on our side greatly misses the mark — and likely costs us what could be winnable victories.
Up to 11 more states will vote on abortion this November. One of these is my home state of Missouri, where a pro-abortion constitutional amendment has been proposed.
In the name of “reproductive rights,” this radical amendment would wipe out all of our current strong pro-life protections, including parental consent laws and bans on late-term abortions.
The proposed Missouri amendment would allow abortion for any reason up until “viability” — an arbitrary stage but one where it’s documented that unborn babies can feel pain. It would also legalize abortion into the ninth month of pregnancy for “mental health” reasons.
One poll of Missouri voters found 44% in favor of legalizing abortion, 37% opposed, and 19% undecided. Those 19% will determine the final outcome of this life-or-death ballot initiative. And it’s the undecided voters — not those already on our side — who we must reach if pro-lifers want to break our losing streak and finally achieve a statewide win.
Instead of spending our limited resources on phone calls, mailings, and media buys aimed at already convinced pro-life voters, we must be laser-focused on reaching what could be called the “mushy middle.”
These undecided folks know deep down that something just isn’t right about abortion. They’re truly uncomfortable with the whole idea because at some level they understand that every abortion stops a beating heart. Yet these undecided voters have also likely bought into one or more frequently repeated lies — lies that say abortion is sometimes the right option, or that laws banning abortion hurt women and infringe on the doctor-patient relationship.
Instead of trying to convince “mushy middle” voters that life begins at conception or that banning abortion for pregnancies resulting from rape and incest is a good idea, pro-life efforts should hammer on the issues that speak most persuasively to these voters. These voters need to be squarely confronted with how truly radical these pro-abortion ballot measures really are. They need to see that by voting for these measures, they’re aligning themselves with something that’s truly disturbing, genuinely inhumane, and horribly extreme.
If we can convince undecided voters that overturning commonsense laws like parental consent, informed consent, and bans on late-term abortion is a bad idea, life can finally score a win.
And not only should persuadable voters be told the truth about what these dangerous pro-abortion measures would entail. They must also hear the powerful first-hand stories of women who have had abortions and suffered greatly from that deadly choice. They should hear — and not be able to forget — the voices of people who as babies survived botched abortion attempts and are grateful to be alive.
It takes a truly callused heart to disregard a woman who aborted her baby and grieves every day for the child she’ll never hold, or to hear from a person who survived a botched abortion and tell them their right to life doesn’t really matter.
When we put real-life faces on the sad and grisly truth of what abortion really is, we can win hearts — and winning hearts wins elections.
But if we preach the same message in the same way to the same choir that was preached at in the previous seven state abortion votes, we’ll get the same disappointing outcome — and more babies will be doomed to death by abortion. Compellingly creative and outside-of-the-box story telling with media-savvy approaches is urgently needed to effectively communicate the message of life to the all-important choir of undecided voters.
If pro-lifers hope to halt our unbroken 0-7 losing record and prevent it from stretching to 0-18, a very disciplined, strategic, and targeted effort must be earnestly made.
We must strive with all our might to reach the one group of voters that has the decisive say on whether babies win and live — or whether more unborn children lose not just an election but life itself.
David Kincaid has a master’s degree in political science with emphases in political theory and biopolitics.
