The Religious Right’s abortion politics predate Roe and were chosen for strategic reasons

Evidence

This story is worse than myth. It is false as history and incorrect as analysis. Christian nationalism drew its inspiration from a set of concerns that long predated the Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade and had little to do with abortion. The movement settled on abortion as its litmus test sometime after that decision for reasons that had more to do with politics than embryos. — Katherine Stewart, The Power Worshippers, 222

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: Central revision: the whole pro-life religion was manufactured around a political instrument — reorients how one reads a half-century of American politics.
• XREF: connects to: The New Right founders launched with grievances unrelated to abortion — Katherine Stewart, The Power Worshippers: Inside the…, 234; Proposed rallying issues for the Religious Right included gay rights before abortion — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith: Race and the Rise of the…, 120; Evangelical opposition to abortion was initially uncertain and politically constructed — Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne: How White…, 160 (+26 more)

Broader Connections

• Proposed rallying issues for the Religious Right included gay rights before abortion #expands (0.85) — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith, 120
• Leading evangelicals initially endorsed Roe as a church-state separation victory #corroborates (0.82) — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith, 92
• Evangelical opposition to abortion was initially uncertain and politically constructed #corroborates (0.80) — Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne, 160
• The Religious Right fabricated an origin myth linking its birth to Roe v. Wade #expands (0.80) — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith, 87
• The Religious Right began as reaction to IRS desegregation of Christian schools. #qualifies (0.80) — Andrew L. Whitehead; Samuel L. Perry, Taking America Back for God, 312
• The Religious Right needed a rallying issue besides racial segregation #expands (0.80) — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith, 119
• Few evangelical voices spoke against abortion through most of the 1970s #corroborates (0.78) — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith, 122
• Forced desegregation of Christian schools, not abortion, sparked the Christian Right #qualifies (0.78) — Andrew L. Whitehead, American Idolatry, 530
• Operatives treated the 1978 election as a test of abortion’s mobilizing power #expands (0.75) — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith, 128
• The right adopted religious mobilization in imitation of the left’s success #expands (0.72)
• Evangelical women’s gender identity fueled the grassroots Religious Right activism. #expands (0.72) — Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne, 154