Conservatives seized the antiabortion movement and turned it statist

Evidence

What happened? Conservatives, led in part by Paul Weyrich, commandeered the antiabortion movement, calling for legislation outlawing abortion (somewhat improbably for an ideology that professes to champion individual liberties and small government). — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith, 172

Categorization

• XREF: Ties to the book’s governing thesis that the Religious Right’s abortion stance was constructed rather than organic, echoing earlier chapters on the abortion myth. — connects to: Christian conservatives purged pro-choice Republicans only by the mid-1990s — Katherine Stewart, The Power Worshippers: Inside the…, 271; Conservatives commandeered the once-diverse antiabortion movement — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith: Race and the Rise of the…, 170; Evangelicals adopted anti-abortion politics six years after Roe for political gain — Katherine Stewart, The Power Worshippers: Inside the…, 255 (+3 more)
• QUESTION: The tension between championing small government and using law to outlaw abortion is worth chasing — what gave conservatives cover for that apparent contradiction?

Related

• Conservatives commandeered the once-diverse antiabortion movement (similarity 0.93)
• Christian conservatives purged pro-choice Republicans only by the mid-1990s (similarity 0.88)
• Evangelicals adopted anti-abortion politics six years after Roe for political gain (similarity 0.84)
• The Religious Right’s abortion politics predate Roe and were chosen for strategic reasons (similarity 0.84)
• Abortion was adopted as a rallying issue because it could unite disparate cultural conservatives (similarity 0.84)
• Conservative Christians originally welcomed Roe v. Wade as advancing religious liberty (similarity 0.83)
• Anti-abortion was chosen after other rallying issues were rejected (similarity 0.83)
• The religious right’s founding coalition was initially indifferent to abortion. (similarity 0.82)
• The Religious Right adopted abortion only after racial segregation failed to rally voters (similarity 0.82)
• Abortion was not a key evangelical voting issue before 1979. (similarity 0.82)
• Early abortion politics pitted Catholic lobbyists against Protestant Republicans, not secular against religious (similarity 0.82)
• 1978 pro-life upsets convinced Weyrich abortion could mobilize evangelical voters (similarity 0.82)
• Abortion failed for years to mobilize evangelicals before the IRS ruling (similarity 0.81)
• Weyrich himself asserted abortion was irrelevant to the Religious Right’s rise (similarity 0.80)
• Early Moral Majority insiders confirm abortion was not its founding issue (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Conservatives commandeered the once-diverse antiabortion movement #expands (0.92) — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith, 170
• Anti-abortion absolutism fused with Christian nationalism to anchor GOP loyalty by 2016 #expands (0.78) — Katherine Stewart, The Power Worshippers, 290
• Anti-abortion was chosen after other rallying issues were rejected #expands (0.72) — Katherine Stewart, The Power Worshippers, 254
• Evangelicals adopted anti-abortion politics six years after Roe for political gain #complicates (0.70) — Katherine Stewart, The Power Worshippers, 255
• Abortion was adopted as a rallying issue because it could unite disparate cultural conservatives #expands (0.70) — Katherine Stewart, The Power Worshippers, 258