Baby killers. According to “pro-life” Republicans, “pro-choice” liberals are baby killers, and those who vote for them in November are accomplices. Conservative Christians have repeatedly told me it is for that reason they want to send former President Donald Trump back to the White House. While doing so, they either excuse his bigotry and his being a threat to democracy — among so many other things — or pretend I’m spreading misinformation when I point out unflattering facts about a man they treat as a kind of messiah. Or they say even if it’s true, God has long used such men to do good anyway.
They may not like that Trump has bragged about living immorally but are willing to accept it because life is so precious and nothing else matters if it doesn’t have a chance to blossom.
That’s what they’ve been telling me for years. It’s what I heard from readers after I recently wrote about how Rev. Franklin Graham’s embrace of a man like Trump is a stain on our faith that won’t easily be removed no matter what happens on Nov. 5. And megachurch pastors have been preaching the same.
Here’s what they rarely do, though: Talk facts. Because the facts don’t agree with them.
The truth is that babies have not been saved by the uprooting of Roe v Wade. But a growing number of women have died or been harmed by laws that resulted.
Since the Dobbs decision ended the half-century right to abortion access, abortions have increased. That’s not a surprise to anyone who has studied the issue deeply before Dobbs, given that we saw the same thing occur in countries where abortion was outlawed. The maternal mortality rate has also climbed since the end of Roe. And more pregnant women have lost the ability to have more children because of a denial of care by providers afraid to provide necessary healthcare for fear of triggering anti-abortion laws that in some cases can lead to prison time.
Some of these conservative Christians may be patting themselves on the back for loving life more than anyone else, being more moral, but their choices have made life in many cases less likely.
For instance, a study out of Texas showed that the maternal death rate increased by 56 percent from 2019 to 2022. Researchers have noted such an increase across states with abortion bans. Those states helped lead a recent national increase in maternal mortality .
What did those conservative Christians get for supporting a man like Trump? An increase in the country’s number of abortions.
It doesn’t stop there. Women who miscarry, a condition which affects about 15 percent of pregnancies, now have to worry about investigated by law enforcement for potential criminal charges. Even abortion laws with exceptions for the life of the mother trigger investigations because “ death is hard to diagnose ” for early miscarriages. It’s why a woman in South Carolina faced murder charges after one.
The conservative Christians who have sworn by Trump didn’t even get a reduction in the number of abortions. While Trump was in office, abortions rose for consecutive years for the first time in decades after falling rapidly under “pro-choice” “baby killer” former President Barack Obama. That increase has continued through at least 2023. All the abortion bans have done is reduce access in red states and convinced more women to take abortion medication instead of heading to a clinic — precisely what happened in other countries with abortion bans.
Instead of rethinking their strategy — one that has caused more damage and pain than has elevated and preserved life — conservative Christians instead are now going after the abortion pill, trying to make it harder for pregnant women to get.
I’ve long believed that some were simply doing what they believed was God’s will, even when I disagreed. It’s getting harder to continue providing that benefit of doubt. But I won’t reduce them to “women haters” even as they call their opponents murderers.
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