Once proponents of the “safe, legal and rare” abortion mantra, the Democratic Party has shifted to a place of not only openly touting the termination of innocents but also plainly placing the contentious issue at the center of Vice President Kamala Harris’ 2024 campaign.
Liberals’ devotion to abortion access feels almost sacramental, with this year’s Democratic National Convention and the antics surrounding it offering up some disturbing imagery, proclamations and activism.
Planned Parenthood Great Rivers made waves when it announced “free vasectomies and medication abortion” via its mobile clinic in the opening days of the convention. The organization released a video touting its “exciting” offerings inside the roving medical center, and later said all appointments for vasectomies and medical abortion were filled.
Meanwhile, pro-choice activists marched outside the convention wearing abortion pill costumes. And “Freeda Womb,” an inflatable, 18-foot-tall IUD, or intrauterine device, was spotted in the mix.
The issue has been so present, prevalent and celebrated at this year’s convention that some have said the Democrats are essentially throwing an “abortion palooza.” Of course, for progressives, abortion is more than a rallying cry. It’s a centerpiece for what the Democratic megaplex wants to enact should Ms. Harris win the White House.
On the opening night of the convention, failed 2016 presidential contender and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton — who has called abortion “sacrosanct” to the Democratic Party and whose husband, Bill Clinton, coined the “safe, legal and rare” mantra in his successful 1992 presidential run — drove home Ms. Harris’ intent.
“She will restore abortion rights nationwide,” Mrs. Clinton proclaimed.
This, of course, squares with what we’ve seen on the campaign trail, with Ms. Harris seemingly building a campaign on the backs of the unborn. The vice president has made it clear she wants to restore American law to be reflective of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court case that legalized abortion across the U.S. until it was overturned two years ago.
The Harris camp has said this means protecting abortion rights up to fetal viability, which is around 22 weeks of gestation. Some liberal activists are clamoring for her to go further, though it’s unclear if Ms. Harris will oblige. So far, she has committed only to re-Roe-ifying the law.
“I am being precise,” Ms. Harris said in an interview last year. “We need to put into law the protections of Roe v. Wade, and that is about going back to where we were before the Dobbs decision.”
With all of this in mind, it’s likely voters will increasingly hear about abortion, as Democrats believe it’s a winning issue after the Supreme Court’s 2022 ruling — a decision that seemed to ignite increased support for abortion access in some arenas. In July, NPR noted that President Biden, before being pushed out of his reelection bid, relied on Ms. Harris to be the “White House’s voice of unflinching support for reproductive health rights.”
The outlet speculated Ms. Harris is “likely to raise the volume” on the issue. But as she prepares to potentially build a campaign around the slaughter of innocents, one must ask: Where does the public truly stand on the abortion front? And is it as ironclad in favor of the procedure as many progressives claim?
The pro-choice movement isn’t wrong when it points to polling showing sweeping support for abortion — but it’s far more complex than those advocating it are willing to explain.
The Pew Research Center found that, in 2024, 63% of Americans believe “abortion should be legal in all or most cases.” Meanwhile, 36% believe it “should be illegal in all or most cases.” Unsurprisingly, 85% of Democrats or those who lean Democratic believe it should be legal, compared with just 41% who are Republican or lean Republican.
But the results change when pollsters move from simply asking hypothetical, generalized questions about abortion access. If researchers get more specific, it’s clear there’s majority support for protections that go far beyond what Roe and, in turn, Ms. Harris would support.
An annual Knights of Columbus-Marist Poll released in January found 66% of Americans support restricting legal abortion, with almost 6 in 10 voters expressing support for limiting the procedure to the first three months of pregnancy — far below the 22 weeks touted by Mr. Harris.
And those pro-life pregnancy resource centers that some Democrats deride are supported by 83% of Americans, with 86% of the public believing the law is capable of protecting both the mother and an unborn child.
These are statistics Ms. Harris and others have either ignored or simply haven’t vetted, but they show something deeply important, especially in the post-Roe era: for Christians, conservatives and others who oppose abortion to get more specific on the issue, to explain gestational periods and the value of life, and to push back when pro-choice politicians minimize the unborn.
Once a baby is humanized and the public is forced to ponder the real ramifications of abortion, hearts and minds seem to change.
It’s almost inconceivable that the politicians once pledging that abortion should be “safe, legal and rare” would now make it the pinnacle of their campaign. Yet this is where our politics stand today, with evil desires trumping rational and human behavior.
In an era when people struggle to feed their families, when our borders beg to be properly addressed and when a slew of issues plague us, the focus on abortion seems ill-placed. But when we consider that the issue leads to the deaths of more than 1 million babies each year — the literal stopping of hundreds of thousands of these young hearts — that focus becomes unimaginably macabre.
Every life matters, and our policies should — and must — reflect that reality.
• Billy Hallowell is a digital TV host and interviewer for Faithwire and CBN News and the co-host of CBN’s “Quick Start Podcast.” He is the author of four books.
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