Note: I recently submitted this article in a slightly different form to a number of media outlets and pro-life organizations. I post it here, not only to make the case that the GOP is endangering its very existence, but also to encourage Christian citizens to enter the public square and bring much-needed biblical perspective to the burning issues of the day. The Church is the pillar and support of the truth in the earth. God grant her the wisdom, ability, and courage to boldly fulfill that high calling (see here).
___________
Before I reply to the question above, a little history is in order.
In the mid-19th century most American abolitionists had found a home in the Whig Party. But in 1852 the party leadership included a pro-slavery plank in its platform. The abolitionists bolted, and just four years later the Whig party exited American history, stage left. It was replaced by a Republican Party dedicated to this fundamental principle: self-evidently, it is wrong—at all times and in every place—for one person to kidnap, sell, buy, or enslave another.
It is just this stubborn adherence to principle that has drawn millions of pro-life Americans into the GOP for the last 50 years which, until now, has held firmly to a similar principle: self-evidently, it is wrong—at all times and in every place—for anyone to murder a preborn human being by abortion.
Imagine, then, our shock and dismay, as we who are pro-life Americans watched President Trump and much of the GOP reject the historic GOP position on abortion and the sanctity of human life.
The litany of the President’s statements to this effect is depressingly familiar. He has told us that the SCOTUS got it right: abortion is a 10th Amendment issue properly left to the states and the (diverse and ever-shifting) will of the voters.1 Though he personally opposes late term abortions, he is fine with letting blue states permit them, even up to birth. He thinks current abortion law in Florida (and therefore some 15 other states) is too restrictive (i.e., illegal 6 weeks after conception, when the baby’s heart is now beating). He has pledged not to sign any federal law restricting abortion. He states that his administration will be “great for reproductive rights.” Professing love for wanted babies, he is keen on in vitro fertilization, an enterprise fraught with moral hazard and inevitable manslaughter; as for unwanted babies, they are on their own. Perhaps most disturbingly, he and his surrogates surreptitiously marginalized pro-life members of the GOP Platform Committee in order to eviscerate the party’s deeply principled, highly detailed, and longstanding pro-life plank. Alas, all too many Republicans, fearing election loss, have fallen in line.
But might this much-lamented pivot to a pro-choice stance on abortion lead—Whig-like—to the death of the GOP? For the following four reasons, I would answer yes.
1. It forfeits the blessing of God and courts his judgment. Christians believe that righteousness exalts a nation, but that sin is a shame to any people (Proverbs 14:34). They believe that God will honor those who honor him, especially if they do so by defending the helpless victims of oppression and violence (1 Samuel 2:30; Proverbs 24:11-12). They believe that the primary purpose of government is to promulgate and administer God’s law (Romans 13), and that his law includes, as an especially high priority, solemn sanctions against murder (Genesis 9:5-7; Exodus 20:13). They also believe that abortion is a form of murder, that deep down everyone knows it, and that when any citizen, candidate, judge, party, legislature, or nation suppresses such knowledge in unrighteousness and willfully murders the innocent, it is courting the judgment of God (Romans 1).
But one needn’t be a Christian to see all this. Thomas Jefferson, a deist who committed the new nation to the self-evident “laws of nature and nature’s God,” solemnly warned Americans that God is just, and that his justice will not sleep forever. Surely events have proven him right. Observe the (post-Roe) decay of our national character, culture, unity, institutions, public policy, economy, military readiness, and standing in the world. Is this not the hand of Almighty God, withdrawing his favor? But in view of 60 million deaths by abortion, one is compelled to ask: What has kept God’s hand from destroying us altogether? Could it be, in good part, a pro-life movement and a pro-life GOP that stood strong? If so, what might happen if they cave?
2. It betrays long-standing principles articulated in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the 2020 GOP platform. The latter stated:
The Constitution’s guarantee that no one can “be deprived of life, liberty or property” deliberately echoes the Declaration of Independence’s proclamation that “all” are “endowed by their Creator” with the inalienable right to life. Accordingly, we assert the sanctity of human life and affirm that the unborn child has a fundamental right to life which cannot be infringed. We support a human life amendment to the Constitution and legislation to make clear that the Fourteenth Amendment’s protections apply to children before birth.
A party should be defined by noble principles such as these; its platform—above all else—should declare, defend, and preserve its principles. Policies may change, but principles—being anchored in God—must not change, for they cannot change. Since the 1980’s millions of Americans have joined the GOP because of the pro-life principles embedded in its platform. Now President Trump has not only abandoned them, but also used his considerable influence to strike them from the party platform, as if one man’s political judgments or preferences should ever be allowed to commandeer and modify a longstanding platform. Yet a majority in the GOP seems content to follow his lead. Naturally enough, pro-lifers feel betrayed. What will they do? Where will they go?
3. It creates a dangerous leadership vacuum in the American public square. Great principles generate great goals, great leaders, and great movements. The modern civil rights movement had all three and triumphed. The pro-life movement is a great movement with a great goal. But for the moment it has no leader. President Trump and the GOP elite, with some noble exceptions, have vacated the public square and surrendered the field of battle on this issue to the Democrat death cult. Unless God grants us a new leader, a renewed GOP, or a new pro-life party, their hordes will continue to swiftly overspread the land.
4. It creates a crisis of conscience in pro-lifers, forcing many not to vote at all, or to vote for a more principled candidate, or to find or start a more principled party. Some conservative pundits bemoan such single-issue absolutism. We wish they understood. Just as you cannot have a little slavery, so you cannot have a little abortion. And for this reason, you cannot compromise with either. Unavoidably, abortion is an act of murder entailing infant suffering and death, irreparable harm to women, the debasement of the culture, and God’s judgment upon the land. Inevitably, conscientious pro-life citizens will hesitate to mark their ballots for a candidate who declares his commitment to “reproductive rights,” lest they themselves should be found responsible for the evils that their candidate unleashes upon the nation. The party that recognizes such compunctions and honors such convictions will enjoy the enthusiastic votes and participation of millions of pro-lifers. The party that doesn’t, won’t. And it may in fact be signing its own death warrant.
How then shall we prevent the suicide of the GOP?
My reply is simple. We must pray for President Trump and the GOP leadership. We must love them enough to challenge them, but always with gentleness, respect, and hope. We must urge them to repent of this lethal dalliance with institutionalized murder, seek God’s forgiveness, re-embrace his will, and re-enjoy his favor.
Concretely, this means that we must stay true to the fundamental principles of the American Experiment. We must constantly proclaim the sanctity of human life and its corollaries in ethics and law. We must urge the SCOTUS to apply the 14th Amendment and restore the God-given right to life to all preborn Americans. Failing that, we must advocate for a Personhood or Human Life Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, thereby compelling the SCOTUS to do its duty.
Along the way, we must work to restrict abortion as much as possible at the federal, state, and local levels. And much is possible. Currently 7 in 10 Americans favor laws that proscribe abortion after the baby is able to feel pain (8-12 weeks after conception). Out of 50 nations in Europe, 47 have enacted just such laws. With tears, we can and should do the same, all the while keeping the supreme goal before our eyes and the eyes of the people: a legally guaranteed right to life for all Americans, from the moment of conception to the moment of natural death.
In passing, let me offer my best reply to a question that presses on many of us: Is it ever right for a person of conscience to vote for a pro-choice candidate?
The issue is complex, so the answers may not be identical.
To begin with, all who honor the Bible as God’s Word know that they must pray over this (kind of) decision, seeking the relevant teaching of Scripture and the mind of the Holy Spirit. Then, when they are fully persuaded of God’s will on the matter, they may vote—or not vote—with a clear conscience before God (Acts 24:16; Romans 14).
Speaking personally, I judge that at times it may be necessary for me to vote for a better pro-choice candidate in order to avoid the election of a worse one, and the dire consequences that would ensue if the latter were to take office. With reference to the 2024 election, pro-life stalwart Steven Mosher also takes this position, arguing that only a Trump victory—which is unlikely without the support of pro-lifers—gives any hope of preserving pro-life gains at the federal level and of influencing President Trump down the line (see here). I agree with his logic. If, however, I were to cast such a vote, I would feel compelled to contact the pro-choice candidate, explain that I am voting for him in spite of his position on abortion, and urge him to reconsider it, seeing that it is dangerously wrong, both for him and the nation.
But again, my decision may be different from my neighbor’s. The GOP apostasy on this issue is fraught with moral hazard on many fronts, requiring each citizen to examine the matter closely, consult his conscience, and pray personally to the Ruler and Judge of all men and nations (Romans 14:12). Inevitably, some will vote one way, others another. If only the GOP had not foolishly laid this burden upon us.
Permit me therefore to close with an illustration based on my Christian faith. Most people would agree that Jesus Christ is the single most influential leader the world has ever known, and that his party—though not without grievous blemishes—is the largest and most enduring in human history. Observe from the New Testament how this man encountered fierce opposition and suffered widespread rejection, even to the loss of his life. But he never compromised. He always stood firm, speaking God’s words, doing God’s will, and letting the chips fall where they may. And so, on Resurrection Sunday his heavenly Father honored and vindicated him once and for all, setting him on a course of eternal victory.
Beloved fellow-Republicans, shall we not emulate Christ, stand firm, and so enjoy true and lasting victory?
Dean Davis is a retired pastor, pro-life advocate, and director of Come Let Us Reason, a Bible teaching ministry specializing in Apologetics and Worldview Studies. www.clr4u.org.
Notes
1. On this point, the President is in error. In the Dobbs decision the SCOTUS did indeed repeal Roe; but it declined to make a judgment on the constitutionality of abortion, limiting itself instead to denying that the constitution contains a right to an abortion. Justice Alito, writing for the majority, said, “The Constitution makes no reference to abortion, and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision, including the one on which the defenders of Roe and Casey now chiefly rely—the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. That provision has been held to guarantee some rights that are not mentioned in the Constitution, but any such right must be deeply rooted in this nation’s history and tradition and implicit in the concept of ordered liberty” (here). Now, as a matter of historical fact, the right to life of pre-born Americans is indeed deeply rooted in our nation’s history and tradition, seeing that in promulgating earlier laws protecting the unborn, the states typically appealed to the 14th Amendment. Moreover, even after Roe, the federal government passed any number of laws regulating abortion, laws that the SCOTUS has not stricken down as unconstitutional. Apparently the justices really do believe that the federal government has a constitutionally mandated right/duty to protect human life in the womb. Therefore, it remains only for the SCOTUS to acknowledge the obvious: the 14th Amendment, just like the Declaration of Independence, guarantees the right to life of all pre-born Americans. But alas, the current justices seem content to punt the issue back to the states. The ensuing chaos and conflict—resulting from the rejection of profoundly important principles anchored in God, conscience, and our founding documents—is evident for all to see (here).