Abortion was not a key evangelical voting issue before 1979.

Evidence

From the late 1970s until today, perhaps no other issue has activated religious conservatives as powerfully and consistently as the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion across the United States. This wasn’t always the case. As numerous historians have shown, abortion was not a vital voting issue for many evangelicals before the rise of the Religious Right in 1979. — Andrew L. Whitehead; Samuel L. Perry, Taking America Back for God, 246

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the broader literature on the Religious Right’s manufactured moral-panic origins, e.g. Balmer’s claim abortion was a rallying issue adopted after desegregation battles failed. — connects to: Evangelical opposition to abortion was initially uncertain and politically constructed — Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne: How White…, 160; Falwell did not preach against abortion until five years after Roe — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith: Race and the Rise of the…, 96; Early Moral Majority insiders confirm abortion was not its founding issue — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith: Race and the Rise of the…, 113 (+9 more)

Broader Connections

• Evangelical opposition to abortion was initially uncertain and politically constructed #corroborates (1.00) — Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne, 160