The backlash to the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision led to a rise in public support for abortion rights, yet four in 10 U.S. Americans still identify as pro-life. Of the voters who claim that abortion is their most important issue (12 percent of all voters), the health-care nonprofit KFF found that 34 percent think abortion should be illegal in all or most cases.
But we’re a constituency without a political home. As a pro-life academic and activist who has worked on these issues for three decades, I find neither major-party candidate in this presidential election acceptable. The Republican Party has rejected our point of view. Democrats are running a candidate who has made abortion rights a centerpiece of her campaign, and whose stance on the issue would make most of the rest of the world blush. Pro-lifers—those who believe that protecting vulnerable and unborn life should be a primary policy priority—now do not fit in either major political party. And this is good, actually.