August 31, 2023
As time marches steadily on toward the 2024 presidential election and many wonder which Republican candidate the pro-life movement will choose to champion, USA Today recently put out an article summarizing our stance well: we are waiting to see who will be a champion for us. Who will distinguish themselves from the others by promising to fight the hardest for the preborn? That’s who will have our vote.
In the article entitled “Which 2024 Republican will abortion opponents choose? These activists aren’t making any promises,” USA Today reporter Savannah Kuchar explains that across the pro-life movement, “endorsements come with expectations,” meaning mere lip service won’t translate to support. It’s not enough to just say you’re pro-life — we expect you to act like it, too.
Abortion scholar and professor at the University of California Mary Ziegler confirmed in the piece that leaders in the pro-life movement are “in lockstep” when it comes to the end goal of making abortion both unavailable and unthinkable. She stated, “There’s no one in the movement who’s satisfied with the status quo. There’s no one who thinks it’s a states rights issue and it should stay there.”
SFLAction President Kristan Hawkins at the first 2024 GOP presidential debate
And what are we looking for as candidates vie for our support? Vision.
Students for Life Action President Kristan Hawkins told Kuchar that candidates must have a federal plan that is beyond a bare minimum, saying, “Any politician whose statements on abortion begin with reasons why they can’t do anything and end in why they will do nothing should likely expect nothing in return from pro-life voters.”
She explained further, “Pro-lifers definitely have choices when it comes to who they’re going to throw their weight and support behind…If you don’t have a vision, you’re not going to get the pro-life vote. No vision, no vote. Simple.”
Hawkins also elaborated on why the Pro-Life Generation will be choosing a Republican candidate to support — not because we bleed red by any means (we recently called out Republican Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina) but because Democrats can’t hold any but the most extreme abortion beliefs today, as evidenced by Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy. After telling voters he supported abortion up to 3 months, his campaign walked his statements back, saying “it should always be the woman’s right to choose.”
(To read more on this, click HERE to read another SFLAction blog entitled “They Don’t Make Democrats Like Jimmy Carter Anymore: When Running for President, He Said, “I Think Abortions Are Wrong.”)
However, Hawkins explained that human rights should be a bipartisan issue and stated, “When we get to that point where we have Democrats running for office, who acknowledge that life in the womb, the child in the womb is an equal valuable member of our society as those who are born, that’s when we know the pro-life movement has won.”
And that is the future that Students for Life of America is working towards as we create life-affirming cultural change across the country. It’s also one that we see reflected in our own movement today as we are a big tent filled with a variety of political affiliations, faiths, and unique backgrounds.
The same one thing that connects us — a respect for life from womb to tomb — will also be the sole driver of our votes. We are pro-life, and we vote pro-life first. Candidates, take note.