The Irreligious Can Oppose Unlimited Abortion, Too
Democrats ignore secular arguments against abortion at their own peril.
Democrats, progressives, and the wider leftist ecosystem have spent decades drilling into their voters that any opposition to abortion must be based on religious belief. Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein (CA) remarked "the dogma lives loudly within" Justice Amy Coney Barrett during her 2017 judicial confirmation, clearly invoking Barrett's Catholic faith as a reason she wouldn't be able to rule "impartially"—that is, protect abortion from the bench. Two other Democrat Senators—outspoken moron Mazie Hirono (D-HA) and future failed presidential candidate Kamala Harris (D-CA)—considered another judicial nominee's membership in the Catholic Knights of Columbus to be problematic because the group holds the Catholic view that abortion is gravely wrong.
Many pro-life activists aren't shy about how their religious beliefs inform their hostility to abortion, but Democrats are mistaken to argue religious reasons are the only reason someone would object. The pro-life movement is a big tent and includes explicitly secular and irreligious organizations fighting abortion.
Secular Pro-Life is one such organization. On their website's homepage, they lay out that view with extreme clarity: "You don’t have to be religious to have a problem with killing humans." They consider making secular arguments against abortion and engaging atheists, agnostics, and "non-traditional" pro-lifers in anti-abortion work part of its mission. The group does not seek religious debate and in fact finds it distracting. It is solely focused on fighting abortion and does not hesitate saying so.
Another group, Rehumanize International, commits itself to ending all aggressive violence against people while "by maintaining [its] organization as non-sectarian and non-partisan." The group includes opposition to abortion as be part of its mission and are explicit in their belief: "Elective abortion isn’t merely a medical decision. It is an act of aggressive violence . . . elective abortion is one of the most profound human rights violations of our time." Rehumanize International may not align perfectly with the conservative movement—they equivocate on the war in Gaza, for example—but they forcefully demonstrate opposition to abortion doesn't require religious rationale as Democrats would have people believe.
Throughout the first Trump presidency the Left amped up their rhetoric and convinced themselves that any limitations on abortion would usher in "theocracy." That obviously did not happen, but Democrats and progressives aren't going reevaluate the idea that only the religious are pro-life. Opposing abortion is far more complex than that, as the very existence of Secular Pro-Life and Rehumanize International can attest. The Left will find themselves more out of touch with the electorate if they continue to brush off objections to abortion as merely religious pablum.
(READ MORE: Biden Gave Abortion Groups $1.2 Billion in Taxpayer Handouts)