Earlier this month, the Republican Party adopted a platform with a decidedly weakened anti-abortion plan: 90 words devoted to life issues, compared with nearly 800 in the 2016 platform; arguments for the protection of human life narrowed to opposing “Late Term Abortion”; and a nod to states’ abilities to pass laws in defense of “Life or Liberty,” citing the 14th Amendment.
Whether the change amounts to prudential politics or moral cowardice, it is a recognition of the current reality. The pro-life cause is not politically viable in many places right now. In significant swaths of the country, legal change is probably decades if not generations away. Consequently, the most important arena of social change right now is the public sphere writ large. And, quite possibly, the most important places to focus pro-life energy and spend pro-life funds are the nonpolitical and nonlegal institutions of everyday life.
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