In 2024 elections, lives are at stake

Next year’s election is shaping up to be one in which culture-of-life issues will be on voters’ minds as the country grapples with such weighty matters as abortion and gender ideology.

Abortion in particular is likely to be front and center for voters on both sides of the issue in the wake of the Supreme Court’s 2022 overturning of the Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion. Although pro-life forces celebrated the ruling, they quickly realized their decades-long battle was far from over as pro-abortion groups redoubled their efforts to legalize a procedure they characterize as “women’s health care.” 

“If anything, our fight has just begun because we now have the opportunity of a lifetime to really abolish abortion,” said Lila Rose, president of Live Action and a member of Legatus’ San Juan Capistrano Chapter.  “Roe is not holding us back. It’s time for bold and decisive action.” 

Rose, who will speak at the 2024 Legatus Summit next January, said that although other life issues will be in play in next year’s election, “Nothing is as important as stopping the killing of 2,500 human beings every day through abortion.” 

LIFE CHOICES AT ALL LEVELS

Indeed, abortion is expected to be a factor not only in the presidential election but other candidate races, including those at the state level. Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of SBA Pro-Life America and a member of Legatus’ Northern Virginia Chapter, said having pro-life governors and attorneys general and pro-life majorities in state legislatures has always mattered but now is even more crucial. “It’s a matter of life and death whether you have a pro-life state government,” she explained, “just as it matters whether you have this on the federal level.” 

Additionally, abortion will be a key consideration in states where issues will be on the ballot to establish it as a right. Dannenfelser said the abortion lobby has pointed to eight states (Idaho, Arizona, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Missouri, and Florida) where they want to put initiatives on the ballot for 2024. 

Last November, in the first national election following the overturning of Roe, pro-abortion groups managed to pass constitutional amendments enshrining abortion in three states — Michigan, California, and Vermont. At the same time, a constitutional amendment stating there was no right to abortion failed in Kentucky, as did a measure in Montana that would have required health care providers to take reasonable actions to save an infant born alive after an attempted abortion. In a similar win for the pro-abortion side in August 2022, Kansas voters defeated a proposed amendment that would have removed language enshrining abortion from their constitution. 

Those victories clearly have energized pro-abortion groups, which, besides the eight states they have targeted in 2024, have placed a “reproductive freedom amendment” on this year’s November 7 ballot in Ohio. On August 8, pro-abortion forces succeeded in defeating an Ohio measure that would have raised the threshold for voter approval of constitutional amendments to 60 percent. 

“The abortion lobby is at its peak intensity,” Dannenfelser said. “In the past they have owned the whole landscape because there has been unfettered abortion till the end.” But now, 25 states have moved to pass laws to save lives, although close to a third of those are under threat by the abortion lobby. If the other side succeeds, she said, “People of those states will not have a voice any longer through the legislature to stop abortion in any way.”

Rose said the state issues often come down to resources and money. In 2022, the pro-life side was outspent. Likewise, she added, the pro-abortion cause benefits from spreading misinformation. 

“I think there has to be aggressive counteraction and we also have to continue to do the hard work of public education,” Dannenfelser said. “If people are properly educated on abortion and understand the evil that it is, even if there is a lot of misinformation, they’re going to be able to see past it. Most people are inclined to be pro-life, but misinformation can paralyze them not to vote for life or think they’re being compassionate if they’re voting for abortion as medically necessary.”

At the federal level, Dannenfelser said, the abortion lobby wants a national law that would eliminate the ability of all states to save lives from abortion. “It’s never been more heightened and intense in our nation’s history,” she noted. “This election will be the most important without question. It’s a moment to be engaged and to encourage officeholders and hold them accountable.” 

TRANSGENDER ISSUES

Although abortion will not be the only life issue capturing voters’ attention in 2024, John Bursch, senior counsel and vice president of appellate advocacy for Alliance Defending Freedom and a member of the Grand Rapids Chapter, agreed it will be the foremost. Related to it will be debate about the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the abortion pill and removal of safety restrictions, something ADF is currently challenging in court. 

Bursch said whatever the court decides, he is confident Congress and the FDA will be taking a closer look at the decision. Likewise, he said, he expects it to come up in the presidential debates along with the question of whether there should be a national minimum level 
of protection for the unborn. 

But Bursch, whose book on the Catholic Church and gender ideology, Loving God’s Children, was published in August by Sophia Institute Press, said gender ideology also is likely to be of significant concern to voters in 2024.

This is evident from the national debate that has arisen over such issues as transgender athletes competing in women’s sports, school policies on transgender students and how they affect parental rights, and whether gender clinics should be prohibited from administering cross-sex hormones and puberty blockers to minors. 

Mary Rice Hasson, senior fellow with the Ethics and Public Policy Center, said she believes there has been a major shift in how the average person views transgender athletes competing in women’s sports. 

“A crystallizing moment was when Lia Thomas started defeating women and displacing them,” Hasson said. “You just visually couldn’t help but confront the contradiction. When you look at him, here is this big man saying he’s a woman and two years ago was swimming for the men’s team.” As female athletes have spoken out about such inequities, Hasson said she thinks the pendulum has begun to swing on the trans issue as it affects women’s sports.

More recently, she added, public opinion also has been trending against medical interventions in minors identifying as transgender. “People know children cannot give consent to such life-altering measures and we are hearing more from the personal testimonies and experiences of de-transitioners — people who went down that pathway and were harmed in ways from which many will never recover,” explained Hasson. “They went through amputations and double mastectomies and their bodies have been damaged. In the process, they have endured trauma inflicted on them by medicine and politicians promoting this.” 

PARENTAL CONSENT 

Neither shift would seem to bode well for Democrats, who have continued to support allowing biological men to play in women’s sports if they identify as transgender women and access to so-called “gender-affirming treatment” for minors, even without parental consent.

Hasson said the question of parental rights has caused people who otherwise consider themselves on the left to move toward the more conservative position on the transgender issue because they believe parents should be able to weigh in on whether their children receive life-altering gender care.

Even though other life issues are on the table, Hasson doesn’t think any of them will assume the national prominence of abortion or gender ideology in the coming election. For example, she said, in states where assisted suicide is an issue, it may be a factor in debates, but is unlikely to gain attention nationally. Also, despite the interest in human trafficking generated by the recent Sound of Freedom movie, Hasson said, “I don’t see it as an election issue because of course everyone is going to say they oppose human trafficking. I don’t think people have enough information about who’s to blame and what should be done so it’s hard to make it an issue.”

NOT ALL CANDIDATES WILL COMMIT TO FEDERAL ABORTION RESTRICTIONS

When it comes to the issue of life and abortion, most of the Republicans running for president are strongly pro-life, but only some have made a clear commitment to advocate for legislation that would protect life at 15 weeks or sooner. 

Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of SBA Pro-Life America, said these include Mike Pence, Tim Scott, and Asa Hutchinson. Among the others, Vivek Ramaswamy has said he does not believe there is a federal responsibility to limit abortion. 

Initially, Democrat Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had been reported as saying he would support an abortion ban after three months, but his campaign quickly walked back his comment. “In a moment of common sense,” Dannenfelser said, “he kind of spoke from the heart and then got stuffed back in the box by his handlers — because that’s where the Democratic Party sadly is.”