Pro-life conservatives are often accused of just caring about the baby’s life before it is born, just being “pro-birth” This article will prove that conservatives are pro-life and not just pro-birth, and describe how this myth would fall apart even if it were true.
In This Argument
- A statistic that shows what one of the strongest predictors of whether a woman will choose abortion is
- Proof pro-life conservatives support babies outside of the womb
- How even if conservatives were only pro-birth, abortion would still be morally wrong
Table of Contents
The Claim: Conservatives Are Pro-Birth, Not Pro-Life
Pro-choice liberals have claimed time and time again that pro-life conservatives are not pro-life, they’re just pro-birth. The accusation behind this is that conservatives only care about women having the baby and do not care about the child once it is out of the womb.
This lie aims to prove that the conservatives real goal is to control women, and do not really care about the baby. While at first it may be convincing, this claim is easily disproved when we look at what pro-life conservatives are really for.
Proof Conservatives Support Life Before and After Birth
Whether a woman has a supportive partner is one of the strongest factors associated with deciding to abort or not. In fact, over 85% of women who have abortions are unmarried, highlighting the importance of stable family support. While government assistance can help, it often does not replace the role of a committed partner. This “nuclear family” is exactly what many pro-life conservatives support.
The United States also has the largest number of adoptions in the world, with about 120,000 a year according to the National Council For Adoption. Still, it’s estimated that many more families are waiting to adopt, especially infants, than there are babies available, though official national data on the exact number of waiting families does not exist.
Even with these statistics, there are several resources that pro-life conservatives support which prove they do indeed care about post-birth life. Here are a few:
- Thousands of Pregnancy Resource Centers (Crisis Pregnancy Centers): Almost all of these are funded and supported by pro-life organizations and conservative donors. They provide free prenatal care, diapers, formula, ultrasounds, counseling, job training referrals, and even parenting classes. States like Texas and Florida allocate millions of dollars to support these centers through alternatives-to-abortion funding.
- The Adoption Tax Credit: This was largely supported by conservative pro-lifers, and many conservatives advocate streamlining adoption processes, cutting red tape, and offering tax credits to adoptive families.
- The Texas Alternatives to Abortion Program: Provides support for women and families for up to 3 years after birth. This is supported by many pro-life conservatives.
- Policies: Conservatives in many states like Utah, Texas, and Mississippi, have passed pregnancy and parenting support funding, expansion of medicaid, postpartum coverage, and protections for unborn children with disabilities or fetal anomalies. Conservatives also largely support Child Tax Credit increases, marriage incentives, and school choice.
- Church Programs: Many pro-life conservatives are active in church-led ministries.
With all of this, it’s hard to say that pro-life conservatives are hypocrites because they are supposedly “pro-birth,” but even if they were, it still would not justify abortion.
Why Abortion Is Wrong Regardless
Even if conservatives are just pro birth, and there wasn’t this mountain of evidence, it would still be better than abortion. Morally, having an abortion because the child may have a tough life is not a valid moral argument. Take this hypothetical.
There’s a burning house and the firefighters show up. There’s a family in the house. Should firefighters only save the people if they can promise a new house and food and money after? Of course not, that would be ridiculous.
The same goes for abortion. Should a baby only be born if the mother can promise no suffering? The argument that if the abortion doesn’t happen that the child might suffer in life is extremely immoral. Everyone suffers. The potential for the baby to have a “tough life” does not justify abortion.
The Bottom Line
- Marital status is one of the strongest factors associated with abortion decisions. According to the CDC, over 85% of women who get abortions in the U.S. are unmarried.
- Pro-life conservatives support several resources for post-birth babies and mothers.
- Even if conservatives were only pro-birth, abortion would still be morally wrong because suffering in life does not justify abortion.