Legislative Update: Life and Politics in the 2024 Election

Tony Beam

Tony Beam

Tony Beam is senior director of church and community engagement and public affairs at North Greenville University, and policy consultant for the South Carolina Baptist Convention

Do you remember where you were when you heard the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade? Do you remember your first thought and how you felt at that moment? The Dobbs decision came on June 24, 2022. For 49 years, five months, and two days, the federal government allowed the killing of babies in the womb until the baby was considered “viable.”

The pro-life community experienced both elation and disbelief. Years of prayers for a Supreme Court that would undo the death and destruction brought on by Roe — a decision that elevated a woman’s right to privacy over a baby’s right to life — were suddenly answered. The states would now decide when life could be protected. Most pro-life advocates believed that since so many state legislatures were controlled by pro-life legislators, we were on the verge of seeing a wave of protections for the unborn.

But the wave crested before it reached the shore.

Twenty-one states did pass more restrictive laws against abortion than allowed under Roe. But six states put the question to the voters, and in all six states, abortion advocates won. California, Ohio, Michigan, and Vermont approved changes to their constitutions protecting the right to abortion. Two states, Kansas and Kentucky, tried and failed to pass a constitutional right to life for the unborn. The number of chemical abortions exploded as the Biden Administration tried to nullify the Dobbs decision by making mifepristone available across the counter and through the United States mail. In a 9-0 ruling handed down last month, the U.S. Supreme Court denied standing to a group of pro-life doctors (Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine) who challenged the Food and Drug Administration’s lax standards for the drug’s approval.

Right now, Florida, Maryland, New York, South Dakota, and Colorado have abortion-friendly ballot measures that will be voted on in November. Five more states have until mid-summer to gather the signatures necessary to join them. On Feb. 16, the Alabama Supreme Court issued a ruling declaring frozen embryos to be “unborn children” for purposes of civil liability under Alabama’s wrongful death statute. In April, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled an almost total ban on abortion from 1864 (that was codified in 1901 and again in 1913) could be enforced. It took the Republican-controlled Legislature less than a month to repeal the law.

You read that right … it was a Republican-controlled Legislature that acted with warp speed to repeal a law protecting life. Conservative lawmakers who ran and were elected based on their commitment to protect the unborn are beginning to run for cover as it appears the right to life is becoming a liability to their efforts to get elected. The fact that principle gives way to pragmatism in the world of politics should not be particularly surprising. But the speed at which many pro-life politicians have suddenly lost their passion for protecting the unborn is astounding.

Christians must never be guilty of checking to see which way the political wind is blowing on issues that God has revealed in His Word to be right or wrong. When we hear the call to compromise biblical principle for political gain, we must stand firm on the Word of God, refusing to exchange its eternal, inerrant truth for temporary political gain.

— Tony Beam is senior director of Church and Community Engagement and Public Affairs at North Greenville University and policy consultant for the SCBC.