If We Want Politicians to Talk about Abortion
We Have to First
Commentary...
Over the past several weeks, every major news outlet has noticed — and reported extensively — on the absence of the topic of abortion from GOP candidates’ speeches. Across the country, Christians have been disappointed by the Republican Party’s failure to make the life issue the hallmark of the presidential campaign.
Defending the most innocent, the most vulnerable among us, should be every candidate’s top priority, but the same is true of every Christian. And if most of us take an honest look at our lives, we must admit that we’re not doing a great job being a voice for the voiceless ourselves.
A 2023 survey conducted by Family Research Council’s Center for Biblical Worldview reported that from June of 2022 when the Dobbs decision was handed down to June 2023, less than 50% (44%) of churchgoers indicated that their church provided a sermon or teaching about abortion during a weekend worship service. Prior to that study, the latest Pew research found that in the spring of 2019, just 4% of sermons posted on a church’s website mentioned abortion.
Despite the fact that 68% of Americans identify as Christians and that the Bible is clearly pro-life, in every pro-life ballot initiative since the Dobbs decision, pro-lifers have lost handily.
These statistics suggest that Christians aren’t talking about abortion nearly enough. Pastors aren’t talking about it; parents aren’t talking about it; siblings aren’t talking about it; neighbors aren’t talking about it; friends aren’t talking about it.
Why not?
There could be many reasons.
The topic of abortion is divisive. The truth that abortion intentionally and brutally ends an unborn child’s life is a hard one to speak and an even harder one to hear.
The Center for Biblical Worldview study also revealed that people don’t want their pastors to talk more about abortion, and if people don’t want their pastors to talk about abortion, they likely don’t want their mom, dad, brother, sister, or friend to bring up the topic either, which makes it hard to do so.
All of us want to be liked, and we live in a culture where — instead of pointing those we love toward goodness and truth — we strive to make sure everyone around us feels comfortable. Talking about what an abortion is makes people feel uncomfortable.
Furthermore, many Christians have had or been a part of an abortion and don’t want to remember the tragic event or don’t want to appear hypocritical by condemning it.
And perhaps there are those Christians who are rightly afraid that if we speak out against the evil of abortion, the Biden/Harris DOJ will be weaponized against us.
Whatever the reason, as Christians, if we’re entirely honest, most of us will admit that we are rarely having conversations about the need to stop the legalized killing of unborn babies with people who have a major influence on our daily lives.
And so, it shouldn’t be surprising that the politicians campaigning to represent us aren’t making defending the unborn their main talking point. Politicians take cues from their constituency. If we’re not talking about it, why would they?
If Christians want their elected officials to start talking about the evil of killing an innocent unborn child, we need to be willing to have the hard conversations with loved ones and friends who disagree with us about the dignity of the unborn child first. There is no magic formula to help these conversations go perfectly, but love, compassion, and stories all help.
As Christians, we are called to change the hearts and minds of those around us — to open people’s eyes to the truths that abortion kills an unrepeatable person, that there is hope and healing for those who have had or been involved with abortion, and that the right to life applies to all people without exception. Innocent lives are at stake. This is our job, and we can’t expect politicians to do it for us.
Topics:Abortion, Elections, Biblical Worldview, The Church, Political Parties
Mary Szoch is the Director of the Center for Human Dignity at Family Research Council.
