Few evangelical voices spoke against abortion through most of the 1970s

Evidence

Evangelical voices decrying abortion throughout most of the 1970s were few and far between. On May 17, 1971, the executive committee of Carl McIntire’s ultra-fundamentalist organization, the American Council of Christian Churches, had issued a press release affirming “the sanctity of human life” and opposing “abortion on demand.” At the opposite end of the political spectrum, following Roe v. Wade, Mark O. Hatfield, Republican senator from Oregon and progressive evangelical, cosponsored a proposed constitutional amendment to ban abortion except in cases of rape or when the mother’s life was endangered. — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith, 122

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Leading evangelicals initially endorsed Roe as a church-state separation victory — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith: Race and the Rise of the…, 92; Evangelicals punished Carter for abortion while Reagan had signed the most liberal abortion bill — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith: Race and the Rise of the…, 131; The Religious Right’s abortion politics predate Roe and were chosen for strategic reasons — Katherine Stewart, The Power Worshippers: Inside the…, 222 (+19 more)

Related

• Abortion was not a key evangelical voting issue before 1979. (similarity 0.88)
• The abortion myth obscures the segregationist origins of evangelical activism. (similarity 0.85)
• Evangelicals adopted anti-abortion politics six years after Roe for political gain (similarity 0.85)
• The 1976 article cited as evangelical antiabortion genesis was primarily a general cultural-engagement call (similarity 0.85)
• Operatives treated the 1978 election as a test of abortion’s mobilizing power (similarity 0.85)
• Conservatives commandeered the once-diverse antiabortion movement (similarity 0.85)
• Leading evangelicals initially endorsed Roe as a church-state separation victory (similarity 0.84)
• Some evangelicals sincerely oppose abortion regardless of their movement’s origins (similarity 0.84)
• Early Moral Majority insiders confirm abortion was not its founding issue (similarity 0.84)
• Falwell did not preach against abortion until five years after Roe (similarity 0.84)
• Evangelicals punished Carter for abortion while Reagan had signed the most liberal abortion bill (similarity 0.83)
• Confronting the abortion myth could reorient the whole evangelical agenda (similarity 0.82)
• Baptist leaders initially framed Roe as a victory for church-state separation (similarity 0.82)
• 1978 pro-life upsets convinced Weyrich abortion could mobilize evangelical voters (similarity 0.82)
• Politics, abortion, and school prayer failed for two decades to rouse evangelicals (similarity 0.82)

Broader Connections

• Abortion was not a key evangelical voting issue before 1979. #corroborates (0.90) — Andrew L. Whitehead; Samuel L. Perry, Taking America Back for God, 246
• Evangelical opposition to abortion was initially uncertain and politically constructed #corroborates (0.85) — Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne, 160
• Operatives treated the 1978 election as a test of abortion’s mobilizing power #qualifies (0.75) — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith, 128