Mark Davis: Republicans can still win on abortion, but messaging matters | Opinion

For more than 50 years, we pro-lifers argued that Roe v. Wade was unconstitutional and should be overturned. We were correct for every single day of that half-century, not because of our anti-abortion opinions but because there simply never was a right to abortion in the Constitution, where matters unmentioned are left to the states. The overturning of Roe was a cause for proper celebration among those of us who knew the 1973 court had falsely concocted a federal right to terminate a pregnancy.

We’ve now had roughly a year and a half of states weighing in as the Constitution allows, and you could say the pro-life celebrations have dimmed.

We are no less grateful for constitutional clarity. We knew post-Roe America would feature liberal states clinging steadfastly to the permissive abortion laws of the Roe era. What we did not see coming was a collection of states in various shades of political red, voting pro-choice as well.

Mere weeks after the Dobbs ruling handed the matter back to the states, voters in Kansas — Kansas! — rejected a state constitutional amendment that would have said there is no right to an abortion.

A little more than a year ago, Kentucky rejected an amendment to the state constitution, including language saying it does not protect abortion rights.\u0009

And days ago, Ohio, a longtime swing state leaning reliably red of late, rejected a measure that would have made it harder to pass an abortion rights constitutional amendment.

Sure, California, Michigan and Vermont have weighed in with predictable pro-choice referenda, but the bottom line is that the pro-life position is 0-for-7 in elections held since the matter was properly returned to the states. So, is America tilting pro-choice, or does the pro-life message need some fine-tuning now that each state gets to make the call?

Every indication is that the nation is less cavalier about unborn life than when Roe was decided. After peaking in 1990, the number of abortions has declined for more than 30 years even as our population has obviously grown. Ambivalence toward late-term abortion has turned to broad opposition, a credit to the long-term pro-life goal of changing minds and hearts as well as laws.

But now that the law part is a state-by-state patchwork, it appears even some Republican state voters will stop short of the near-total bans found in Texas and many Southern states. Pro-choice voters understandably view this as a victory; pro-lifers should view it as an opportunity.

It is an opportunity to craft the wisest path toward changing more minds and hearts. Not every state is going to have heartbeat laws that outlaw abortion as soon as fetal cardiac activity can be heard. As voters receive future opportunities to protect unborn life, the pro-life message should be designed to attract converts while tactfully dismantling misconceptions.

Abortion-rights proponents present mothers with the stark binary choice of absorbing the costs and demands of a child or ending its life. Adoption is the answer that relieves mothers of both the obligation of unwanted children and the stigma of erasing them. Nothing could be more pro-woman.

Crisis pregnancy centers abound, featuring legions of helpful souls seeking to welcome scared and hesitant mothers into their loving care for help, whether they intend to raise their babies or offer them up for adoption. These heroes have long exploded the myth that pro-life means only pro-fetus, with little regard for mothers, or for children after they are born.

Pro-life voices should spread these truths more, while airing other wish-list items somewhat less. There is nothing constitutionally improper about a federal 15-week barrier for abortion. Returning the matter to the states was the remedy to the judicial fiction of Roe v. Wade. As abolitionists did not stop at the partial eradication of slavery, honest pro-lifers will admit to an ultimate goal of a nation that protects more babies than it does today.

But we will have done ourselves no favors if we launch that Hail Mary onto a playing field where the Constitution is just now being correctly applied. It is hard to argue that America is lurching leftward amid polls showing Donald Trump beating Joe Biden in a significant series of battleground states. But if voters are not ready to embrace a full pro-life agenda even in some states with appreciable numbers of Republicans, the solution is patience and skillful communication.

Nikki Haley may have provided an example in the Nov. 8 GOP debate, pointing out the wisdom of fostering broader areas of agreement rather than floating national abortion bans that combine political futility with the danger of electing more Democrats in 2024.

Standing on principle is always praiseworthy. But a vital pro-life principle should always be to attract more than we repel —and to avoid losing elections that make our goals even harder to reach.

Mark Davis hosts a morning radio show in Dallas-Fort Worth on 660-AM and at 660amtheanswer.com. Follow him on Twitter: @markdavis.

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