Texas abortion law shows the failure of pro-life incrementalism

The Far-Left has been outraged ever since the Supreme Court allegedly voided Roe v. Wade when it ruled in favor of pro-life incrementalism under a Texas law banning abortion as early as six weeks into pregnancy or when a heartbeat can be detected, but their outrage is merely political theatre played to hide the fact that Texas women are still able to murder their unborn babies despite the law.

Two new studies show that abortions among Texas women fell very little under the Texas abortion law, with many women traveling to nearby states or buying abortion pills online (via TheHill.com):

One of the studies published Sunday from the University of Texas at Austin showed an average of 1,400 women per month traveled to nearby states, a 12-fold increase on out-of-state abortions compared to before the law was enacted in September. Those states included New Mexico, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Arkansas, Kansas, Mississippi and Colorado.

The other study published in JAMA open network last week found that an average of 1,100 women ordered abortion pills online each month. However, the study could not conclude if every order resulted in an abortion.

“The numbers are way bigger than we expected. It’s pretty astounding,” Kari White, the principal investigator of the university’s Texas Policy Evaluation Project, said of the findings, The New York Times reported. (emphasis mine)

Even though murdering unborn babies has continued in Texas, John Seago, the legislative director of Texas Right to Life, is spiking the pro-life football in victory:

“There’s no hesitation from our side to declare this a victory for actually protecting pre-born children from elective abortion. We’re realists around here, so the best we can do is incentivize women to have their children.” (emphasis mine)

You know what else is “real,” Mr. Seago? Thousands of murdered unborn children despite your “victory.”

It’s simply indisputable that Pro-Life, Inc. has grown quite comfortable with the reality that more babies are being killed by abortion under the banner of incrementalism than are being saved.

How did the pro-life movement arrive at this sorry state? Quite simply, it has compromised values and abandoned conscience to make room for the failed policy of incrementalism in all its forms: heartbeat bills, pain-capable bills (20-week ban), and born-alive abortion survivor bills.

Such “restrictions” tug at the heartstrings of those who want to end abortion, and they look good on the surface. But in the end, they merely serve to raise money for Pro-Life, Inc. while creating a political passivity concerning life that eases guilty consciences but does little-to-nothing to end the abortion holocaust.

As you might expect, so-called pro-life organizations aren’t too keen on having the light of truth shone on their dark deeds — leveraging abortion to make money and gain political influence — because it exposes the failure of incrementalism, and it shows how much they have in common with Planned Parenthood and other pro-abortion organizations.

Republicans are experts at promoting incrementalism — usually when there’s an election on the horizon — which is why the party promises to end abortion every election season. The Republican Party platform in 2016 was called the most pro-life platform ever — the same platform was recycled in 2020 — and VP Mike Pence declared Trump to be “the most pro-life president in history” even though he had never been truly pro-life.

During the 2016 campaign, Trump’s views on murdering unborn babies and Planned Parenthood funding were nearly identical to those of Hillary Clinton, and his promise to end abortion through the Supreme Court was simply a continuation of the “vote Republican” con job the party has been playing on conservatives for decades.

And let’s not forget that Trump and the Republican Party were responsible for providing record-breaking amounts of taxpayer dollars to Planned Parenthood to continue butchering unborn babies.

None of the Republican Party’s pro-life promises became law, but even if they had, it wouldn’t have prevented a single abortion. But that’s the point; Republicans and their Pro-Life, Inc. allies never intended to end abortion because there’s simply too much money in it. However, by promoting pro-life incrementalism, they can tickle the ears of donors and voters until the next election cycle when they’ll do it all over again.

Wash. Rinse. Repeat.

Writer and editor Philip Jeffery addresses the reason why pro-life incrementalism should be rejected when he wrote:

“Incrementalism is a losing cultural strategy. The left did not gain the cultural upper hand by incrementalism. The sexual revolution that gave us the current abortion regime did not come about by baby steps. Cultural battles are won with bold claims and striking images. The left has been winning the culture, especially on issues of abortion, sex, and gender, by offering materially comfortable middle- and upper-class Americans the chance to imitate Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, and Malcolm X. Abortion thus becomes a great and noble cause. This strategy works because many Americans, especially young men, feel that their lives are unmoored, banal, and hemmed-in by forces beyond their control. They have an itch for moral heroism.

“The pro-life movement needs to take a clear stand. Vigorous action and bold law-making does not mean giving up on caring about mothers and children alike. And no organization understands this as well as Planned Parenthood itself. Planned Parenthood has managed to convince millions that it “cares no matter what”—even as its supporters march in the streets, rage on the Internet, and pressure legislatures in New York, Virginia, and elsewhere to do their bidding. How much better could the pro-life movement be at playing that game, by providing actual care and actual results in statehouses?” (emphasis mine)

The failure of the Texas abortion law couldn’t be any clearer because pro-life incrementalism does nothing to abolish abortion or save babies. But that’s OK with Republicans and Pro-life, Inc. because they don’t really care about saving the unborn . . . not when votes and money are on the line.

 

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David Leach is the owner of the Strident Conservative. He holds people of every political stripe accountable for their failure to uphold conservative values, and he promotes those values instead of political parties.

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