Opinion: The “Ostrich Strategy” is Lethal
Pro-life Republicans challenging for an open seat in Pennsylvania are following bad advice from their advisors when it comes to addressing the right to life issue. By and large they are avoiding the issue and that allows their opponent to define them. Of course the liberal Democrats are saying that their Republican challenger is going to ban all abortions, put doctors and maybe women in jail, forbid contraception, and not allow ectopic pregnancies or life threatening circumstances to get the necessary medical care. This total fabrication needs to be challenged because it will never happen in Pennsylvania and is not happening anywhere in the country.
If I were a pro-life candidate, I would not hesitate to say that I believe in science. Life begins at conception, a child has a heartbeat at 3-6 weeks and can feel pain at 12-15 weeks. I am ashamed that in some of our states we have adopted policies for abortion that are in line with China and North Korea and more liberal than almost the rest of the world. Republicans must strive to pass laws that will reduce the number of abortions. Consensus allows for some limitations now. We must accept gradual progress. Do you remember when the accepted mantra was “we want to make abortions safe, legal and rare?” Now most Democrats must be for abortion any time, for any reason, and have it paid for as a “health care” right.
Republican candidates must point out that the views of the Democrats are the extreme out of touch views. RMG Research (a Scott Rasmussen public opinion firm) found among very likely voters, 73%* say there are two lives to consider: the mother’s and the unborn child’s. 83%* of voters favor requiring abortion centers to meet medical standards applied to other healthcare facilities. 71%* of voters favor parental notification before a teenager gets an abortion. 70%* of voters favor helping women with unplanned pregnancies with counseling, material aid (diapers, formula, car seats), and even housing. 79%* of voters believe the father of the pregnant woman should be financially responsible for the mother and child during pregnancy. Charlotte Lozier Institute found that 60% of women who had an abortion would have preferred to give birth if they had received either more emotional support or had more financial security.
Republican candidates need to point out that the organizations that provide the help that allows a woman to choose life for her child are the over 125 pregnancy resource centers in Pennsylvania that the Democrats call fake clinics. In 2019 they helped 60,000 young women, men, and their babies with over $5.6 million in resources free of charge. Democratic Governor Shapiro recently ended the small amount of money that was given to a few of these centers through DHS funding of “Real Alternatives”. He took the money that every administration since Gov. Casey had allocated to empower women to choose childbirth rather than abortion and gave it to Planned Parenthood and their allies who already receive from the state 12 times more PA tax dollars. Planned Parenthood does not help women choose life or help them with maternity care and clothing, diapers, care seats or strollers. Essentially they only offer one choice which is to terminate the life within the mother.
Planned Parenthood proudly announced this election cycle they will give $40 million to candidates nationwide who essentially promote abortion anytime for any reason paid for with taxpayer dollars. Are these the extreme out of touch candidates or is it the Republican candidates who believe our Declaration of Independence recognized a right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The pro-life Republicans are the reasonable ones who will seek out a consensus on how much protection Pennsylvanians want to give to innocent unborn children. Republicans want to save more lives than the Pennsylvania Abortion Control Act did (allowing abortions for any reason up to 23 weeks and for some reasons up until birth). Democrats espouse “bodily autonomy” for a pregnant woman but no rights for the separate body she is carrying with separate DNA and organs. A child in the womb only needs protection and nourishment to survive. For years after birth that child still needs nourishment and protection. The only thing that changes after birth is the location of the child.
There are still a good number of pro-life registered Democrats who feel abandoned by their party. In 1990 80% of the candidates listed on our LifePAC voter guide were Democrats. Being pro-life is still a winning issue in SWPA. Two years ago only one incumbent pro-life candidate lost and that was a pro-life Democrat, Chris Sainato, who lost to a more pro-life Republican, Marla Gallo Brown. Pro-life challengers in open state wide races since the Dobbs decision have not done well. In my opinion, the fact that almost all of them adopted the “ostrich strategy” and allowed their opponent to win on the issue of life unchallenged was a factor in their defeat.
I believe Republican candidates can win by being unapologetic in their desire to stand with every woman and help them choose life and care for the innocent life of the unborn child. The gradual progress that the majority of Pennsylvanians are in favor of is much more appealing than the extreme pro-abortion position of the Democratic party platform. Republicans can boldly ask for the vote of those in the middle so that they can help more women choose life. The small percentage of pro-abortion voters who will not accept any protection for the unborn child are never going to vote pro-life. We must prove by our actions that we can make abortion unnecessary and unthinkable. Let’s make our forefathers proud and strive to be the country they imagined, one that declared we all have an unalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.