Op/Ed: When Abortion Became a Religious Issue

Details: Category: Op/Ed, Legal Commentary; Published on Tuesday, 13 June 2023 07:03; Written by Anastasia Pirri

Abortion wasn't always a religious issue as White evangelicals initially had a range of positions on abortion until right-wing evangelical leaders dominated the political scene in the 1970's. The leaders sought to steer evangelicals toward supporting the pro-life movement.

However, their motivation was not as transparent as they had presented. They were motivated by their agitation about removing tax exemptions for Christian academies. Right-wing evangelical leaders attempted to unite white evangelicals to fight against the International Revenue Service. However, white right-wing evangelical leaders did not want to announce their intentions directly.

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Instead, they tricked white evangelicals into assembling by using abortion. Before prominent activists Paul Weyrich and Jerry Falwell emerged, many evangelicals believed it was a woman's choice to have an abortion. In 1968, Christianity Today hosted a conference with the Christian Medical Society. Twenty-six theologians from all over the world debated the morality of abortion and then issued a statement reading, "Whether the performance of an induced abortion is sinful we are not agreed.. but about the necessity of it and permissibility for it under certain circumstances we are in accord." Carl F. H. Henry, who founded the magazine, had said, "a woman's body is not the domain and property of others."

Conservative editor Harold Lindsell had said, "if there are compelling psychiatric reasons from a Christian point of view, mercy, and prudence may favor a therapeutic abortion." Christians had many different stances on the subject of abortion, however that was changed by right wing leaders.

Court Cases that Led to the Development of the Religious Right or the "Moral Majority"

The basis for the fury that dominated right-wing leaders was Brown v. Board of Education, a combination of cases in which black students were denied admission in South Carolina, Kansas, Delaware, Virginia, and Washington D.C. The students held that segregation in facilities (which Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) ruled in favor of) violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

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On May 17, 1954, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the plaintiffs concluding that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional even if the facilities were "equal" in quality. Again, this was something Plessy v Ferguson established. However, Brown v. Board of Education only applied to public schools, not private schools.

In the case Green v. Kennedy (David Kennedy was the secretary of the treasury but was later replaced by John Connally), the plaintiffs won a preliminary injunction that temporarily denied the segregationist academies until they concluded a decision. Later, former Republican president Richard Nixon instituted a new policy that mandated tax exemptions to segregated schools. Under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, discriminatory schools are not counted as philanthropic or charitable organizations, so they had no basis to receive tax exemption status. Therefore, donations are not tax-deductible contributions.

One year later, the United States District Court for the District of Columbia concluded its ruling, which sustained the IRS policy enacted by Nixon. Now, religious leaders seized this opportunity to unite white evangelicals and deliver them towards the "moral majority" since white evangelicals were not highly active in politics. White evangelicals' separation from the republican party was highly influenced by the Cold War. Paul Weyrich wanted to build a base of politically active white evangelical conservatives. The ruling of Green v. Connally caught the interest of evangelical leaders, especially ones that owned segregationist Christian academies.

The Emergence of Jerry Falwell and Paul Weyrich

Paul Weyrich was a conservative religious activist; he was the CEO of the Free Congress Foundation and co-founded the Heritage Foundation with Ed Feulner. Paul Weyrich engineered the contemporary religious right wing, also known as "the moral majority." However, he did not divulge his social stances often. Jerry Falwell, another prominent right-wing religious figure, had made his position on social issues apparent.

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He had deemed the civil rights movement "civil wrongs," and opened his segregationist academy, the Liberty Christian Academy, in 1967. Falwell was known for his resistance against homosexuality, women's rights, and abortion. He also deemed the civil rights movement "a terrible violation of human and private property rights." Falwell responded to Martin Luther King's 1965 Selma march by stating, "church leaders who are so obsessed with the alleged discrimination against Negroes in the South need to get off the streets and back into the pulpits and into the prayer rooms."

However, this logic only applied to anti-racist activists. Falwell became politically involved once Liberty University lost its tax-exempt status due to the Green v. Connolly ruling. Falwell helped white evangelicals support Republicans to defeat Jimmy Carter. Jerry Falwell, Paul Weyrich, and other organizers wanted to make their support for segregation and hatred of the civil rights movement politically palatable.

Hence the shift to abortion instead of outright fighting against segregation. Abortion, therefore, was the ideal subject for right-wing evangelical leaders (especially those who owned segregated religious institutions themselves). Their diversion could lend them more credibility and respectability, which secured their public persona and gained white evangelical support.

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The Effort to Blame Democrats

Religious conservative leaders shifted blame onto democrats to turn evangelicals more to the right, which is why right-wing evangelical leaders blamed Jimmy Carter for the IRS's actions, despite it being Nixon's policy. In 1978, right-wing evangelical leaders won by peddling anti-abortion sentiments. Pro-life Republicans won both Senate seats.

A prominent example of the abortion agenda capturing evangelicals was when Senator Dick Clark lost to his pro-life opponent Roger Jepsen. Senator Dick Clark had been ahead 10% until the campaign's final weekend when pro-life activists distributed leaflets in church parking lots, a tactic that had previously occurred in Minnesota.

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In 1980, Jimmy Carter wanted to reduce the use of abortion as birth control; however, he did not pass any laws restricting or outlawing abortion. This caused the developing evangelical conservative base to withdraw their support for Carter. Ronald Reagan, Carter's republican successor was not strictly pro-life; he still believed in abortion in cases of incest, rape, and threats to the mother's health. In 1967, as Governor of California, he signed the "Therapeutic Abortion Act," which authorized doctors to perform abortions until the 21st week of pregnancy in cases of incest, rape, or when the embryo posed a risk to physical or mental health.

In 1980, evangelicals rallied at the Reunion Arena in Dallas. Ronald Reagan said the IRS targeting independent schools was unconstitutional; he never addressed abortion. Jimmy Carter lost to Ronald Reagan for various reasons, primarily his inability to solve the Iranian hostage crisis. However, Falwell claimed Carter would have won the popular vote if the religious right did not turn on him.

The Significance of the Religious Right in Contemporary Abortion Discourse?

The recent ruling of Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization overturned Roe v. Wade, which previously protected pregnant women's choice of an abortion. Justice Samuel Alito wrote the opinion for Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization.

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Alito is a Christian conservative justice nominated by former President George W. Bush on October 31, 2005, and started serving on January 31, 2006. In 2014 the case of Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, Alito authored the majority decision that family-owned corporations can be exempt from laws that require corporations to supply female employees with contraception coverage. He argued that those laws infringed on the religious freedom of the owners of the corporations.

In the ruling of Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, Justices Clarence Thomas and Brett Kavanaugh concurred. Both are a part of the religious right, which evolved from the efforts of right-wing evangelical leaders such as Jerry Falwell and Paul Weyrich. Justice Clarence Thomas noted in 2022 that LGBTQ+ rights and contraception rulings should be reconsidered. Justice Clarence Thomases remarks align heavily with Jerry Falwell, who had infamously stated that gay people were to blame for the 9/11 terrorist attack.

The manipulation of Right-wing evangelical leaders economically burdened by the IRS engineered the contemporary Christian right. The rulings of Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization and Burwell v. Hobby Lobby display the success of Jerry Falwell and Paul Weyrich's goal to create a voting bloc of evangelical conservatives who embrace American traditionalism.