The Irrelevance Of Pro-Lifers

America has largely moved on from abortion, to the chagrin of people who make their living off the issue

“Trump is the problem,” declared Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser to the Wall Street Journal this week. It’s a startling comment about a president who delivered the biggest victory to pro-lifers in their history. Thanks to Trump’s picks, the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and finally allowed abortion opponents to restrict it throughout the country.

But the victory proved Pyrrhic for the movement. The Court decision contributed to a disappointing election for Republicans in 2022. Pro-lifers have lost nearly every ballot initiative on their core issue, even in red states. Republicans have largely moved away from the issue to avoid punishment at the ballot box. Pro-lifers vowed to make Trump pay a price for insufficient commitment to their cause in 2024, but he easily won the primary and the general election without their support.

Abortion is left to the states now and national Republicans don’t want to discuss it. Despite having the power to ban/restrict it in many states, abortions are up and it’s never been easier to get an abortion pill. That’s why pro-lifers are mad at Trump and are prepared to demand more from Republicans. They want to make it a national issue. Otherwise, they think the “movement as we know it is finished.”

This is a declining movement trying to sabotage the only party willing to advance its interests. Pro-lifers demand the GOP make it a national issue because the movement can’t win on its own. So they insist Republicans expend political capital on an issue that’s a proven loser in contested elections while offering nothing in return.

Pro-lifers have more power than ever to implement their policy agenda. They just have to prove to lawmakers in red states that it will help them win elections. They’ve failed to accomplish that objective. In their anger, they aim to bring down Republicans with them. This is the behavior of a jealous girlfriend, not a serious political interest group.

Let’s reflect on how pro-lifers have fared in state ballot initiatives on their sole issue. Since Roe v. Wade was overturned, they have only won three state referendums. None of the referendums mandated a complete abortion ban They simply rejected liberalization of abortion laws and kept their bans at a certain time frame. And in Florida, the measure only failed because it required a 60 percent majority.

In other states Trump won, the pro-life movement lost decisively in votes since 2022. In Montana, Arizona, Ohio, Michigan, and Nevada, overwhelming majorities backed “right to abortion” amendments. A smaller majority backed such an amendment in Missouri, which eliminated the state’s abortion restriction it had approved before Dobbs. Abortion restrictions failed to win in Kentucky and Kansas.

While abortion didn’t help Democrats much in 2024, it did help them in 2022. Republicans were expected to win bigly in the midterms–and then Dobbs happened. In spite of a historically unpopular president who welcomed millions of illegals and oversaw a sluggish economy, Democrats still managed to keep the Senate and keep the Republicans to a bare majority in the House. Pro-lifers tried to blame Trump for this loss, but he ended up winning in 2024. The same can’t be said for their own stance.

When interest groups make the case for their indispensability, they often insist how they helped the candidate win an election. Pro-lifers can’t make that case. Many of its leaders, including influencer Lila Rose, urged their followers to NOT vote for Trump in the election. They would only change their tune in the final days of the election. During the primary, the pro-life movement made it clear they didn’t want Trump as the nominee. They lost in the primary and made no impact in the general.

This was the result of Republicans neutralizing the issue. The party platform explicitly opposed a national ban and said the issue should be left to the states. It’s now left to the states, which was once a conservative goal. But since pro-lifers lose at the state level, they’ve taken the curious position that it would be a big winner to just focus on the national level. If this issue can’t win in Missouri, how do they expect to win at the federal level?

The question is left unanswered, but pro-lifers still insist it’s necessary to win over their “voters.” The problem is that there is hardly any evidence single-issue pro-life voters exist outside of these DC-based groups. The average pro-life Republican is not going to vote for Democrats promising abortion-on-demand to send a message to the guy who made it possible for states to ban the practice. Besides, GOP voters care about a whole lot of issues besides abortion. The economy, immigration, taxes, and other bread-and-butter issues matter more to voters. If there is such a large swath of single-issue pro-life voters, they would’ve shown up by now.

The fact is that the overwhelming majority of the public is pro-abortion. Sixty percent say it should be legal in all or most cases. Only 38 percent say it should be illegal in all or most cases. Most pro-lifers believe it should be illegal in all cases except when it comes to the life of the mother. That position is only supported by 13 percent of voters. Many pro-lifers also want to ban IVF and birth control, two ideas which are universally unpopular.

Republicans have benefited from this issue fading from voters’ consciousness, but that could change depending on how the courts rule on abortion pills. Democrats are less eager to talk about this issue now than they were in 2024. Conservative media seems to have moved on from the issue and chatter around it rarely comes up on social media. Even Trump haters on the Right, ever eager to fixate on new “betrayals,” don’t bring up this line to attack the president. It’s something even political partisans have moved on from.

That’s a bad sign for Pro-Life Inc. If no one cares about the issue, donations dry up and they’re irrelevant to the political conversation. But that’s the fate they’re facing, as Dannenfelser admitted to the Wall Street Journal.

The irony for them is that it would’ve been better for their interests if Roe v. Wade had never been overturned. Before that fateful event, they were shielded from having to put their core issue to the public. They could pressure Republicans into adopting their maximalist demands without consequence and pretend this was the central issue of the conservative base. But the court ruling changed this whole picture, making abortion a real issue for people. It exposed Pro-Life Inc.’s lack of voters and unpopularity with the public. It forced Republicans to change their stance on the issue to accommodate actual voters. And it humiliated pro-lifers with losses in conservative states.

It’s hard to come to terms with the public rejecting your position, especially after years of believing the people were on your side. It should’ve made pro-lifers reassess their situation, adopt a different strategy, and work to advance their policies at the state level. But they didn’t do that. Instead, like many right-wingers faced with reality, they retreated to a fantasy land where the masses were still on their side and the base was begging for their maximalist demands. There’s no polling in fantasy land; just wishcasting and purity spirals. Pro-lifers have directed all their energy toward browbeating Republicans and conservatives. There’s zero attempt to persuade the public of their positions. In their minds, the people all want a full abortion ban, damn the polls and election results. They feel no need to advertise the cause.

As is common with many right-wingers with fringe views and poor persuasion techniques, pro-lifers have decided the best political strategy is to take their ball and go home. They hope the GOP will rush over to beg for its forgiveness. It’s a feminine shit test, but it only works when the other party thinks they can’t live without you. Pro-lifers may learn the hard truth that the GOP can live without them.

With Republicans, pro-lifers are like a terrible girlfriend who’s rapidly lost her looks and charm. This girlfriend is deeply insecure over the fact that her boyfriend could do better than her. Instead of improving herself to keep her man, she resorts to insane shit tests, nagging, and constant threats to make him stay. These threats are empty as few GOOD MEN want her and none of them will do as much for her as the poor boyfriend does. Wise men would advise the suffering boyfriend to dump the hag.

The GOP probably doesn’t need to go that far in its toxic relationship with the pro-life movement, but these jilted lovers do need to learn their place. Pro-lifers have little votes, little money, and little team spirit to offer either political party. Democrats have zero interest in courting them. This is why they want to legalize late-term abortions. Pro-lifers’ only option is with the GOP. Republicans give them the opportunity to restrict abortion. It’s up to the activists to sell it to the public.

It’s not the GOP’s fault anti-abortion is unpopular. The fault lies with those who made it their career to convince the public they should support it. Instead of reflecting on this, pro-lifers hope to destroy the only political vehicle they have out of anger at their own failures.

It’s another sign of their irrelevance–and why conservatives should tune out Pro-Life Inc.

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