The Foundational Issue of Our Time

I was encouraged recently by the results of a Gallup public opinion poll on abortion taken in May. The poll found 51% of Americans calling themselves “prolife” and 42% “pro-choice.” This is the first time a majority of U.S. adults have identified themselves as prolife since Gallup began asking this question in 1995. Even more astounding is the fact that a recent national survey by the Pew Research Center recorded an eight percentage-point decline since last August in those saying abortion should be legal in all or most cases, from 54% to 46%.

These results, obtained from Gallup’s annual Values and Beliefs survey, represent a significant shift from a year ago, when 50% were pro-choice and 44% prolife. Prior to now, the highest percentage identifying themselves as prolife was 46%, in both August 2001 and May 2002.

It would appear that the dedicated work of those involved in the prolife movement is having an impact in shaping public opinion. The work of Pregnancy Resource Centers using ultrasound to show the humanity of the unborn child certainly tops the list of prolife activities that have affected this change in public opinion. The work of prolife activists in the public and political arenas has also clearly impacted public opinion.

Findings from the results

These findings are good news, and we should be optimistic about the future. However, succeeding in the task of achieving an abortion free America is going to require heightened and intense efforts on the part of those who believe in the sanctity of life ethic. While our viewpoint may now be the majority opinion it is not the ruling ethic that dominates our public policy. Until current public policy changes abortion will continue unabated.

President Obama and members of his majority Democrat Party are unabashedly pro-abortion, and the president has moved quickly to establish abortion on demand as an official policy of the United States government. So we must ask ourselves this one question.

How can we reconcile the fact that a public that is increasingly prolife elected the most pro-abortion president and Congress in our history?

I believe that while a majority of the public is prolife a majority of the voters are not yet willing to base their vote for any office on this one issue. People do not want to be identified as “single issue” voters and when many who are prolife are asked how such convictions influence their vote they reply: “Of course I am against abortion, but I am not a single issue voter. Other issues are important as well.” Accordingly, many of these voters vote for a pro-abortion candidate because they determine that while the position of such candidate on abortion is wrong they agree with him on a host of other issues that they also deem important.”

This kind of reasoning occurs because the public has allowed the media to tag prolife voters as “single-issue voters” who do not care about other crucial matters that are impacting the nation. Of course, we all are concerned about the economy, the environment, education, taxes and other critical issues. However, abortion is not just a single issue — one among many of which we are concerned. Rather, abortion is a fundamental issue upon which all other issues depend.

We are not single-issue voters.

Rather, our vote is based upon whether or not a candidate is correct on the fundamental issue of our time — the right to life. Without the right to life all other issues are meaningless. The right to life is a fundamental issue upon which we judge the worthiness of any candidate for public office. The importance of other issues pales in comparison. And any candidate who denies this basic principle is not qualified to hold office.

Our nation was created on a sound belief in the sanctity of human life. The founding document of our nation, the Declaration of Independence, states that all humans are endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights with the first of such rights being the right to life. Likewise, our Constitution in the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments protects the taking of the life of a person without due process of law. Again, life is the first right mentioned in the Constitution ahead of the rights to liberty and property.

Until the majority of Americans who hold prolife convictions understand that abortion and life related issues are fundamental to the continued existence of the American republic we, unfortunately, will continue to elect representatives who do not share such a view. Until the majority of Americans insist that all who represent us in the political arena stand firmly in favor of the foundational issue of our life abortion will continue.

It is good news that the majority of Americans now classify themselves as prolife. We must now translate such public sentiment into the political arena so that a majority of our public officials hold such a view.

The right to life is the fundamental issue of our time. When the majority of Americans insist that this fundamental right must never be denied to any class of human beings then abortion will end in America.

Copyright © 2009 by Thomas A. Glessner. All rights reserved.