2022-11-12
2022 Election Analysis: Part 2 - The Pro-Life Message Needs to Change
Very early on election night 2022, I knew the Red Wave wasn't going to happen. What gave it away? Exit polls. The most concerning of them all:
71% of voters thought abortion should be legal. In combination with the tragically unprepared and unvetted MAGA candidates endorsed by Donald Trump, there was no chance of a red wave.
Slightly later in the night, it was announced that Kentucky voted down a statewide ban on abortion. Something very similar happened in Kansas in August.
At the time, conservative outlets made the excuse that Kansas conservatives were "different" and the results of the referendum in Kansas were going to be an exception. Kentucky voted 52.37% to 47.63% to block a constitutional amendment saying Abortion was not a right.
To put this in perspective, Rand Paul won a 61.8% to 38.2% victory over Charles Booker. Rand Paul is definitely a libertarian-leaning Republican, so there may be a few anarchists voting for him in Tennessee. However, if you assume that everyone of the 741,415 voters who voted against abortion in Kentucky were among the 911,587 who voted for Rand Paul, 18.7% of Rand Paul's voters supported a legal right to abortion.
Hypothetically, with some Democrats voting pro-life, it's not unreasonable to think 1 in 5 Paul voters support abortion. That represents an abject failure of the pro-life movement. The pro-life movement is convincing NOBODY except for conservatives that abortion is immoral.
While it's true the pro-life movement has an uphill battle fighting the mainstream media and pop-culture, it absolutely MUST do better than 47% in a deep red state like Kentucky!
I am not a marketing genius, so I don't know what the right argument looks like. However, if I were to make some suggestions:
- Leave God out of it.
As soon as we mention God or how "every child is a blessing," people who disagree tune us out. - Focus on conflict theories of society
How has abortion negatively affected women in society? - USE SCIENCE!
I know it seems like science is used to disprove religion and a lot of Christians don't like it, but GET OVER IT! Science is on our side! An individual's unique DNA is formed at conception. Pro-choicers have convinced themselves that a child doesn't have a soul until he or she is born. We obviously can't disprove that. So, let's define human life as what it scientifically is: unique human DNA.
The pro-life movement is failing to change hearts and minds. Maybe it's because it's treated like a religious issue. Maybe it's because we're not explaining the issue well enough through the lens of a conflict model of society. I don't know what needs to change, but what they've been doing for the past 20 years hasn't worked.
