The Bona Fide Back Story on Abortion

12 years ago, Lindsay and I road-tripped to Vegas with a few friends to canvas for Barack Obama on the last weekend before the election. In the wake of his 365-electoral-vote volcanic eruption, a few Evangelical friends shared their honest feelings with us. They were gravely concerned that we had drunk the hope-and-change Kool-Aid. Obama was about to raise taxes and he was soft on terrorism—and, yes, he was a peddler of abortion. One friend even called him a “baby murderer.” None of this was surprising. We had the playbook memorized. We were trained up in it for decades.

What we didn’t know—and later studied—was that the white Evangelical obsession with abortion had only been a thing since the late-1970’s. That’s when powerful white male pastors, pundits and politicians plotted to make the “pro-life” cause the political litmus test for white Christians. They used it as a wedge issue to deny liberal Christian Jimmy Carter a second term. They preached against abortion to seize power and claim a “moral majority.” But here’s the bona fide backstory: they focused on the family and the fetus to mask the real issue for white Americans. Race. A decade after Dr. King was assassinated, white Evangelicals wanted all-white private schools and they wanted them tax free. They reframed their racism as “religious liberty.” The freedom to subsidize segregation.

In 1983, I started attending one of these white Evangelical private schools. When the popular young male teacher passed us in the hallway, he greeted us the same way every time: “Good morning, young Republicans.” At that school, I was never taught that the bible is practically silent on the issue of abortion or that there were other vital pro-life issues like war, nuclear weapons, the death penalty, a living wage, health care and housing—or that even if Roe v. Wade was overturned, it would still be legal in most states. My young Evangelical mind was never counseled to compassionately consider the wide variety of traumatic events that often force women into making these decisions. My teachers and pastors just made it clear: abortion was the only political issue that mattered (in the 90’s, they added same-sex marriage into the mix).

The single-issue voter is still alive and well, eager to paint swing states red. These people of faith have been trained up to confine “pro-life” to the womb, while turning a blind eye to the bomb and the early tomb. While white male pastors, pundits and politicians still passionately peddle the prohibition of abortion, they stay stubbornly silent about the greedy and violent forces that stalk the lives of women and Black, Indigenous and Immigrant peoples. In the minds and hearts of this powerful voting bloc, Trump can say whatever and do whatever so long as he stays staunchly “pro-life”—and doesn’t sell them out on race.

America was “discovered” and designed by white supremacy. It has survived by cloaking itself in other issues like abortion. In the past 40 years, an organized coalition of powerful white men have strategically morphed it into a segregated fantasy world obsessed with the evils of unplanned pregnancies, reverse racism and anti-religious liberals. It is a world designed for folks like me. However, I joined the mass exodus of those who were groomed to be good young Republicans too. Of course, I still believe that the life of the unborn is precious. But I refuse to allow the issue to be framed by folks using it to hide death-dealing agendas.