By John Michener

When it became evident that Roe v. Wade would be overturned, a powerful consortium of lobbyists and organizations sprang into action to protect existing policy and ensure that women would be able to continue choosing to kill their children by abortion without consequences. This consortium addressed a letter “To all State Legislators in the United States of America” that said:

“As national and state … organizations, representing tens of millions … across the country, let us be clear: We state unequivocally that we do not support any measure seeking to criminalize or punish women and we stand firmly opposed to include such penalties in legislation ... Turning women who have abortions into criminals is not the way.”

These are powerful, influential voices. A quick AI search found well over $155 million in annual revenue from just half the seventy-six organizations who signed this letter. Money talks, so state legislators have listened and obeyed. Not one single state has completely criminalized the commission of abortion, and even in all the conservative states combined, killing a human by abortion is considered a criminal offense for only a handful of abortion doctors.

So who are these lobbyists who wield so much power that they have effectively kept abortion legal in all fifty states? The oldest, largest, and most influential organization was founded in 1973 and has over 3,000 non-profit partners and affiliated political action committees in all fifty states. This power-house is called National Right to Life.

The second most powerful signer of the letter is Susan B. Anthony Pro-life America, which boasted $46 million in revenue in its most recent annual report. Ralph Reed’s Faith and Freedom Coalition ($24.4 M) and many of his affiliates also signed this petition to state legislators. Other groups that signed this letter, or who have touted the same message, are Students for Life of America ($13.6 M), Priests for Life ($11.2 M), Americans United for Life ($3.1 M), and Pro-Life Action League ($1 M).

At this point you may be wondering if you read that right. You did. These powerful pro-choice influencers call themselves pro-life, but in every state they advocate for women to have the legal ability to choose to kill their children by abortion. Furthermore, they daily interfere at state capitols to block and kill bills of equal protection for our preborn neighbors. In reality, these are pro-choice pro-life (PCPL) organizations.

Here is an example of how PCPL organizations influence those in seats of power. Texas Representative Jeff Leach is a Republican pro-lifer has been groomed by pro-choice pro-lifers and chairs the House Committee on Judiciary & Civil Jurisprudence. Here is what Rep. Leach said on the record as his committee was hearing a bill to provide equal protection for preborn humans: “As the chair of the committee … I cannot and will not support, nor will I let come out of this committee, any bill on this subject … that targets a woman who is facing that difficult decision and who might make that decision. And I feel very strongly in that, and you have my commitment.”

Do the financial supporters of PCPL organizations donate to them to keep abortion legal and available? I do not think so. I suspect that the rank and file followers of these organizations would be horrified if they knew what their favored pro-life organizations were doing. Have these organizations kept faith with the majority of their donors? I do not believe so. I believe most of their supporters are pro-life abolitionists, while the leaders of these organizations are pro-choice pro-lifers.

All of this begs the question: Why? Why do these “pro-life” organizations and their leaders continue to protect a woman’s legal ability to choose to kill by abortion? Why do they fight any effort to fully criminalize the act of abortion? Why are they functionally pro-choice? I honestly want to understand. Pro-choice pro-life communications to legislators usually contain little by way of rational explanation for their pro-choice position. Typically, they simply assert that women who choose to abort are somehow victims and that we must therefore take pity on them. To the best of my understanding, this is a summary of their victimhood argument:

1) Victims should not be prosecuted.

2) Women who choose to abort are victims.

3) Therefore, women who choose to abort should not be prosecuted.

4) Therefore, no law should be enacted that might allow women who choose to abort to be prosecuted.

While we can grant that victims should not be prosecuted, the remaining argument is fraught with logical problems. Premise two makes a category error by treating all women who abort as a single monolithic body when it comes to victimhood, instead of considering individual women. Not all women who choose to abort are victims, and in fact, upon closer inspection, very few truly are. A victim is someone who is physically or psychologically harmed or under constant imminent threat of harm. An example might be a sex slave who is controlled through physical restraint, drugs, or psychological threats. Another example would be a pregnant woman in China who is forced by soldiers to undergo an abortion under communist China’s “One Child Policy.”

Most women who choose to abort know they are not victims. On a ministry website that I support and follow, one post-abortive woman said, “We are not victims. The only victims are the women being robbed of their right to choose.” The curator then asked, “Would you say that the majority of aborting women were coerced into their abortions against their will?” Her answer: “nope. Most women who get abortions want them.” In another thread a woman posted, “Republicans are morons. I’m a happy aborter. No victim here.” She, too, was asked, “Were you coerced into your abortions?” Her answer: “Nope, I would do it again too.”

Because most women who choose to abort are not victims, pro-choice pro-lifers equivocate on the word victim. Instead of using it to mean “someone who is coerced or forced,” they use it to mean “someone who is pressured.” So, how often are women pressured to abort? A scientific study of 5,109 precounseling needs assessment forms of women who sought abortions found: “In 2% of cases, women felt that they had been pushed to have an abortion against their wishes – that is, women responded ‘true’ or ‘kind of’ to the statement that someone else wants them to have the abortion and also reported having low confidence in their decision” (“Attitudes and Decision Making Among Women Seeking Abortions at One U.S. Clinic.” Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health, 2012, 44(2):117–124, doi: 10.1363/4411712).

Based on this study, even if we grant that a victim is someone who is pressured, not coerced, the assertion that women who choose to abort are victims is a huge logical and factual failure. Remember, the mother calls the abortionist; the mother sets multiple appointments; the mother is often required to have an ultrasound so she can see the little human growing inside her. She reviews information about her abortion procedure and signs an informed consent form. The mother chooses to position her own body on the table so that her offspring can be terminated. And finally, the mother, or her boyfriend, or her husband, or another friend or family member PAYS the abortionist for his services. These do not look like the choices and actions of a victim. Nor is it one, simple, immediate choice which would be easy to pressure or coerce. It is a series of choices, required by pro-life laws, over several days to weeks, each one of which comes with time, new information, and new opportunities to realize the magnitude of the choice.

Now let us grant for the sake of argument that 90% of women who choose to abort have been pressured or truly victimized. Premises three and four still fail because it does not follow logically that because some women are victims that our law should grant positive legal protection to every woman who wants (for whatever reason) to kill her preborn offspring in the womb, which is the current legal reality in every state. For those women who were not victims it would be appropriate to have a law that would allow them to be prosecuted for killing an innocent human. Our legal system assumes that everyone is innocent until proven guilty, and we do not prosecute true victims. Since we have a system that differentiates between victims and criminals, we have nothing to fear from enacting a law that makes it criminal to solicit an abortion or perform an abortion on one’s self. In order for justice to be served, our laws must agree with God’s natural and revealed law that it is absolutely wrong to kill innocent humans, and the U.S. Constitution requires our laws to provide equal protection to every innocent human.

The path to abolishing abortion is straightforward. We must take away legal protections, make it criminal, and enforce the law. Perhaps the hardest part of accomplishing these goals will be working around the most powerful pro-choice pro-life influencers. That will entail exposing the truth to everyday pro-life supporters that the powerful influence of the pro-life lobby is functionally pro-choice. In a future article, I will examine a much stronger pro-choice pro-life argument, the claim that “Women who choose to abort are innocent because they are ignorant or deceived.”