Many of my fellow Christians plan to vote for Donald Trump next week because he is nominally the pro-life presidential candidate. Well, if President Trump is our nation’s pro-life champion, it’s time to rethink the direction of the pro-life movement.
Donald Trump has revealed his pro-choice and immoral mentality through his actions and has proven ineffective in promoting a pro-life agenda. Joe Biden, on the other hand, supports policies that are likely to reduce abortions while also upholding other Christian values.
Donald Trump promoted his Covid-19 treatment as a “cure” despite the fact that it was developed using human embryonic kidney cells obtained from an abortion. His contempt for basic public health precautions and contact tracing protocols demonstrates his disregard for the lives of more than 200,000 U.S. citizens who have died from the disease. He didn’t even have enough concern for the lives of his staff to keep his mask on while in the White House four days after his Covid-19 diagnosis.
On the policy front, Donald Trump has failed both to reduce funding for Planned Parenthood and to curb abortions during his presidency. Planned Parenthood received $616.8 million in federal grants in 2019, almost $75 million more than in 2012 during the heart of the Obama Administration. Overall funds to Planned Parenthood have increased by 27% during the same time period, leading to a record 345,672 abortion procedures in 2019.
In addition, Donald Trump gets too much credit for his track record of conservative judicial appointments. Republican-appointed judges have a well-documented history of trending liberal over time and have often provided key votes in far-reaching liberal decisions, including for abortion-related cases.
Even if the Supreme Court eventually overturns Roe v. Wade, this would simply restore states’ ability to criminalize abortion. Yet, 21 states including Nevada, Kansas, and Florida have already expressly protected abortion rights. It is easy to imagine a post-Roe v. Wade world in which non-profit organizations shuttle women from “criminal abortion” states to “legal abortion” states for abortion procedures. Whether U.S. abortion rates would substantially decrease is anyone’s guess, although evidence suggests otherwise. According to a Lancet Global Health study, the 2015-2019 abortion rate for countries that restrict abortion was generally much higher than the abortion rate for countries with broadly legalized abortion.
Although Joe Biden is pro-choice, his policy agenda provides a more fruitful approach to actually reduce the abortion rate. The top reported reason for women having an abortion is that they are not financially prepared for a baby. By creating well-paying infrastructure jobs, reinforcing the caregiving economy, and providing more pathways to obtain higher education and training, Joe Biden will help many such women feel more financially secure. Moody’s Analytics has determined that Joe Biden’s proposed policies would bring the economy back to full employment two years faster and create 7.4 million more jobs than Donald Trump’s policies.
Making U.S. citizens more financially secure is correlated with a reduced abortion rate. Just look at the economic recovery from the Great Recession under the Obama Administration. From 2011-2014, the abortion rate fell by over 7%, even decreasing in states that added new abortion clinics.
Even though the fight to criminalize abortion may feel energizing for some, the pro-life movement needs to start thinking about strategies that will actually work. Joe Biden’s policies will help prevent situations where women feel they need to have an abortion. Joe Biden’s policies will reinstall Christian values in our national policies by keeping families together at our southern border and respecting the dignity of the poorest among us.
Joe Biden is the true pro-life, Christian values candidate.
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The Palindromic 