Why the outcome of the 2024 election offers opportunities for pro-lifers

By means of David ClossonVoice Contributor Tuesday November 12, 2024

On November 5, 2024, Donald J. Trump completed the greatest comeback in American political history by winning the 2024 presidential election, defeating Kamala Harris. Trump becomes only the second president to be elected to non-consecutive terms, the first being Grover Cleveland in 1892. For beleaguered pro-lifers, Trump’s victory offers hope and opportunity.

While “unprecedented” is an overused word in modern politics, the 2024 election featured a series of events that are truly unprecedented in American history. For example, in the June 27 debate between Trump and incumbent President Joe Biden, Biden’s hesitant and uneven performance shocked most observers and resulted in many prominent Democrats calling for him to withdraw from the race.

On July 13, just two days before the start of the Republican National Convention, Trump survived an assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania. After an assassin’s bullet grazed his ear, Trump, blood streaming down his face, pumped his fist and urged the crowd: “Fight!” (Trump would survive a second attempt on his life outside his golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida, on September 15.)

Less than 48 hours after the first assassination attempt, Republicans formally nominated Trump as their candidate. It is striking that the delegates approved it a scaled-back party platform which left out the robust pro-life language of previous platforms. While the platform condemned late-term abortion, it was noticeably lacking in specificity on the subject, a change reportedly driven by Trump himself.

After the Republican convention, calls for Biden to withdraw from the race became louder. On July 21, Biden became the first sitting president to withdraw from a presidential campaign after winning his party’s primaries. After stepping aside, Biden endorsed his vice president, Kamala Harris, which the party quickly rallied behind. On August 6, Harris announced Minnesota Governor Tim Walz (D) as her running mate. Just a year earlier, Walz had signed an abortion expansion bill that, among other things, eliminated protections for babies born alive after an abortion.

At the Democratic National Convention, Democrats unveiled a platform that contained a long chapter on abortion. The convention’s abortion messaging previewed the priorities of the Harris-Walz campaign, which poured tens of millions of dollars into pro-abortion ads.

On September 10, during their only debate, Harris tried to tie Trump to politics Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization concludes, claiming: “Donald Trump hand-selected three members of the United States Supreme Court with the intent that they would overturn the protections of Roe v. Wade.” In turn, Trump drew attention to his opponent’s support for late-term abortion. Despite protests from Harris (and the ABC moderators), Trump went further, saying, “The Democrats are radical…her vice presidential pick says ninth-month abortion is absolutely fine. He also says that execution after birth, its execution, and no longer abortion, because the baby has been born, is okay. And I’m not okay with that.”

In the latter part of the campaign, Harris emphasized her support for abortion in interviews, rallies and campaign statements. On September 19, she told Oprah Winfrey that the state’s pro-life laws posed a “health care crisis.” Additionally, Harris stated on October 22 that she would not support any “concessions” to pro-lifers, including religious exemptions. Similarly, Harris vowed to “restore reproductive freedom” during an Oct. 25 meeting with singer Beyoncé. Campaigning in Michigan the next day, Harris once again blamed Dobbs’ decision for creating “a health care crisis.”

Although Trump’s campaign consciously focused on issues other than abortion, the issue still came up. Notably, during the campaign, Trump repeatedly promised to veto what he described as a “national abortion ban.” On October 8, Melania Trump published a memoir in which she spoke out strong pro-abortion viewsspecifically, “A woman’s fundamental right to individual liberty over her own life gives her the authority to terminate her own pregnancy if she so chooses.” Elsewhere, she argued that the “cultural stigma associated with abortion must be lifted.”

In a disappointing outcome for pro-lifers, voters in seven states approved pro-abortion ballot measures. Voters in Arizona, Colorado, Maryland, Missouri, Montana and New York added permissive pro-abortion amendments to their respective state constitutions, essentially allowing abortion during all stages of pregnancy. Nevada voters also passed a pro-abortion measure that must be re-passed in the 2026 general election to take effect.

In a positive development, voters are coming in Florida, Nebraska and South Dakota similar pro-abortion referendums rejected. In Nebraska, voters not only approved a pro-life measure that codified the state’s 12-week protection law into the state constitution, but also rejected a competing pro-abortion measure. The victories in these three states are significant, as they represent the first national pro-life victories since then Dobbs. However, the outcome of these ballot measures proves that referendums across the state will remain a challenge to the pro-life cause for years to come.

In short, in the first presidential election since the overthrow of Rooabortion played an outsized role. Although the candidate was ostensibly committed to protecting life, Trump’s relative reluctance to speak on the issue, coupled with the Republican Party’s truncated platform, has indicated that pro-life policies have been viewed as a political liability was considered.

Overall, pro-lifers have many reasons to be grateful for the outcome of the 2024 election. Kamala Harris campaigned on the most aggressively pro-abortion platform in American history; her push to expand abortion animated her quest for the White House, and her defeat was interpreted by many pro-life Christians as undeserved grace. Currently, Republicans are also on track to flip control of the Senate and retain the House of Representatives, meaning pro-lifers can expect a reprieve from the Biden-Harris administration’s aggressive pro-abortion advocacy.

However, as the recent campaign has shown, there are those within the Republican Party who are not committed to the pro-life cause, and pro-lifers who supported the president’s campaign must use their political capital to hold pro-life officials accountable.

In the years that followed Roo was destroyed, Christians have learned that the nation is more pro-abortion than we would have liked to imagine. However, the results of the 2024 elections show that pro-life candidates can still win office and that the pro-life movement is still a major force in electoral politics. Going forward, the work of winning hearts and minds must continue in earnest, as it is clear that five decades of Roe have coarsened the nation’s conscience more than we realized. Clearly, much work remains to be done to convince our fellow Americans that every unborn child is a gift from God.

Finally, the battle for life continues. Although intimidating, the battle must be entered into; the lives of countless millions are at stake. May Christians, motivated by love for our neighbors, be faithful in our work as we advocate for babies, their mothers, and their families.

Originally published on The Washington Stand.

David Closson is director of Christian Ethics and Biblical Worldview at the Family Research Council.

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