Stop Being Cowards About Restricting Abortion

 At Townhall.com today, David Harsanyi has an article saying Republicans Need To Stop Being Cowards on Abortion. Note that Harsanyi isn't a Christian Pro-Lifer, indeed he is an atheist. But even Harsanyi recognizes that the killing of innocent children is immoral. He says so. Even more, the killing of them by tearing them limb from limb is sickening. Republicans should stand proudly for the life of the unborn.  Republicans often point out that voters don't back them.  Well, it works both ways.  Christians are being targeted for pro-life stances.  Having Republicans in our corner would be nice.

Harsanyi presents several paragraphs of useful abortion information that, if voters knew these facts, might cause them to re-think their vote for Democrats.

How many voters know that the Democratic Party supports legalized abortion through all nine months of pregnancy on demand for virtually any reason? How many voters know this position aligns with only six other countries in the world -- three of them, not incidentally, being North Korea, Vietnam and China?

How many voters know that Democrats want to pass a federal law banning states from stopping sex-selective abortions or the dismembering of the post-viable unborn or the requirement of parental and guardian notification for minors before getting abortions? How many know that Democrats want to strip medical workers of their conscience rights by compelling them to participate in the procedure or lose their jobs? How many people know that Democrats want to eliminate the popular Hyde Amendment, which stops the federal government from funding abortions with taxpayer dollars?

Now, maybe a majority of voters aren't aware of Democrats' maximalist positions because the media endlessly lies and obfuscates them. And maybe pollsters rarely ask useful questions on the topic because the answers are a lot more complicated than they'd like. And, maybe, after the shock of Roe v. Wade being overturned -- treated by Democrats as if it had been chiseled into magical stone tablets over the past 50 years -- the energy and passion of the debate will temporarily reside on the pro-abortion side. And, maybe, if every voter knew all the facts, it still wouldn't matter. Abortion is a complex and emotional issue.

None of that excuses the inability, or aversion, of national conservatives to make a coherent and compelling pro-life case. Sometimes it feels like Republicans are more terrified by the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health decision than pro-abortionists. Even if pollsters were right about the unpopularity of abortion restrictions, there is this crazy thing that politicians occasionally engage in called "persuasion." Rather than just chasing around voters for approval, this entails convincing them with arguments.

Then Harsanyi points to a number of cases where a Republican championed the unborn and won. He speculates that these positions may be more popular than Republican politicians think. If that is true, Republicans should perhaps make restriction of abortion a plank in their candidacy.

Then again, if every Republican lost every race in the country over abortion, it still wouldn't make killing human beings for convenience any less of a moral abomination or the fight to stop it any less critical. A majority position isn't, by default, moral or decent -- quite the contrary. And meaningful political fights aren't predicated on short-term gains. Overturning Roe took 50 years. The political fight over abortion might take even longer.