Many conservative Christians said that despite his long list of improprieties and morally questionable behavior, Donald Trump was the right choice for president because a Republican would be the best option on "life."
The numbers on the ground don't back up that belief, though.
Given conservative Christians' hard-line position against abortion, it is odd that they so infrequently acknowledge what should be a cause for celebration: The abortion rate fell to an all-time-low in 2014 (the most recent numbers available) and has been decreasing for the past couple of decades, along with a rapid fall in the teen-pregnancy and early sex rates. The Guttmacher Institute, which is widely acknowledged as having the most comprehensive statistics on abortion, noted that the raw number of annual abortions has dropped below the 1 million mark for the first time since the 1970s - even as the population has been increasing.
Despite some people's belief that life was devalued by the 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision legalising abortion nationally, abortions have decreased markedly the more deeply entrenched Roe has become in American society.
It's not happenstance that the abortion rate hit an all-time-low during the tenure of a pro-choice president, Barack Obama, the kind of leader conservative Christians have vowed never to support because of abortion. The abortion rate's fall accelerated during the Obama years - and the ratio of births to abortions greatly improved - not because of more restrictions, but because the proportion of unintended pregnancies fell from 51 percent to 45 percent. Researchers believe that is the result of better health care, increased use of long-term contraception, and initiatives that have slowed the rate of unplanned pregnancies.
We understand that abortion opponents want to overturn Roe v. Wade and see the number of abortions go to zero. That's why they're celebrating Trump's nomination of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, a move they believe takes them a step closer to that day. The reality, though, is that an abortion-free country is a long, long ways away and the increasing rarity of the procedure is progress to be celebrated.
Some so-called values voters backed a presidential candidate who has repeatedly violated those values. They gathered by the thousands in Washington, D.C., last week for the annual "March for Life," which included luminaries such as Vice President Mike Pence declaring that "life is winning again in America" and Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway taking on a prominent speaking role to the delight of conservative Christians everywhere.
The irony is that "life has been winning" in large part because of the kinds of policies - such as access to contraception - now under threat by the Trump administration and opposed by many conservative Christians.
White evangelical Christians made a deal to protect life, even at the expense of professed principles of morality, when they chose Trump over pro-choice Hillary Clinton in November.
Let's hope that deal doesn't work against them by thwarting the country's progress in protecting life at all stages.
The Charlotte Observer
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