What is the Abortion Abolition movement?

“Abortion abolition” is the view that anyone who participates in killing unborn humans should be prosecuted for murder. It calls for every form of elective abortion to be immediately outlawed. The name deliberately evokes the efforts to end chattel slavery in Western culture. This stance is based on the biblical premise that all human beings equally deserve protection as image-bearers of God (Genesis 1:27). Therefore, taking an unborn life is murdering the innocent (Genesis 9:6; Proverbs 6:16–17). In the United States, abolitionists also cite the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which guarantees equal protection under the law. According to this view, abortion denies the unborn their constitutionally protected right to life. Abolitionists advocate for a total ban on elective abortion and prosecution of all abortion providers and abortion-seekers.

Most people describe all opposition to abortion as “pro-life.” But abolitionists distance themselves from the “pro-life” label. Mainstream pro-life organizations advocate for incremental change. They almost always reject the idea of subjecting abortion-seeking women to criminal prosecution. The mainstream pro-life movement views women who seek abortions as victims of predatory industry and deceptive propaganda. Therefore, abortion providers, not abortion seekers, ought to be punished. Mainstream pro-life causes lobby for abortion restrictions such as heartbeat laws but reject criminalizing anyone other than abortion providers and facilitators. To the abolitionist, these are unacceptable compromises.

Pro-life and abolitionist views share cornerstone principles. They disagree on feasibility—the question of whether an approach has a chance of causing the desired results. This is neither the philosophical approach to morality called “pragmatic ethics” nor the general philosophy of pragmatism. It is the question of whether a given strategy leads to positive change, no change, or counterproductive change. There has always been a level of public interest in incremental law changes and partial limits regarding abortion. There is virtually no support for total bans and prosecution of abortion seekers. The mainstream pro-life movement asserts that real-world change will not come from insisting on laws that surrounding culture will never consider. On the contrary, says the pro-life movement, pushing for sweeping change provokes even deeper resistance.

The abortion abolition movement counters that mainstream tactics are the equivalent of lobbying for “some slavery,” rather than its elimination. The abolitionist viewpoint is that tolerating a certain quantity of human rights abuse while arguing that human rights should not be abused is contradictory. Either is abortion murder, or it is not. If it is murder, it ought to be treated as such without special exceptions. Mainstream pro-life voices would not necessarily disagree, any more than they would to the same logic applied to drunkenness, adultery, blasphemy, and other currently ”legal” sins. However, most pro-life voices strongly criticize those who insist on laws that Americans will never pass, based on the idea that saving some unborn children is better than saving none.

Both abolitionism and pro-life views unite with Scripture at the individual level of valuing the life of the unborn. Neither claims it is moral to murder an unborn child. Both agree that if laws faithfully followed biblical principles, elective abortion would be entirely illegal. Their disagreement is political and strategic. Should believers in the current culture strive for immediate partial changes, or principled insistence on an all-or-nothing result? A Christian might see value in either approach, choosing the extent of their support for either. As always, this choice should be guided by prayer and the leading of the Holy Spirit.