How The Pro-Life Establishment Lost The Battle Over Abortion

Tony Lauinger, at first glance, is a relatively unassuming figure. The veteran pro-life lobbyist can often be seen in a coat and tie shuffling through the halls of the Oklahoma State Capitol, where he represents the interests of Oklahomans for Life as their state chairman, as well as National Right to Life, one of the most powerful pro-life entities in the nation, as their vice president. He has also served as a delegate to the Republican National Convention on several occasions.

This elder statesman in the Republican Party, however, has done more to subvert the end of child sacrifice in deep-red Oklahoma than perhaps any other individual in the state.

Over the past eight years, there have been roughly half a dozen bills filed in Oklahoma to equally protect preborn babies immediately and without compromise, simply by applying the same homicide laws which protect born human beings to preborn human beings. Rather than supporting these bills as the main pro-life lobbyist in the state, or at least remaining silent while those in favor of the legislation sought to attract lawmakers to their proposal, Lauinger has consistently rallied Republican leadership and other political resources to oppose the bills.

The rationale for this opposition has been a sort of four-dimensional political chess. That has been true from the spring of 2016, when Lauinger circulated a letter warning that an equal protection bill would overturn previously passed abortion regulations, to the winter of 2023, when Lauinger published an article calling for rape and incest exemptions to be actively recodified into Oklahoma law out of a “practical need for incrementalism and prudence.”

Political animals like these are the reason why abortion remains legal at some level in all fifty states, especially in the conservative states where the pro-abortion lobby has no power.

They are living proof that compromise begets compromise. For their troubles, however, they are showered with accolades and awards from the same pro-life organizations which siphon money from well-intentioned Christians who simply want to see abortion ended and babies saved.

Just this week we saw several pro-life leaders, terrified of losing their seat at the table with the Republican establishment, publicly endorse a move from the Republican National Committee to strip almost all anti-abortion language from their platform. The four-dimensional political chess grandmasters at SBA Pro-Life America, Faith and Freedom Coalition, Citizens for Renewing America, American Principles Project, Phyllis Schlafly Eagles, and Americans United for Life indeed thanked the establishment for deprioritizing their only supposed priority.

None of these developments are a surprise to those who have been paying attention to the abortion battle in recent years. The pro-life establishment, known by some as Big Baby, has been driven by their twisted pragmatism to subvert the very cause they claim to support.

This insidious pragmatism can be characterized as abortion regulationism, defined as the insistence that abortion can be only ended with an endless stream of legal restrictions.

The pro-life establishment over the past several decades has thereby catechized the culture to believe that abortion is acceptable in certain scenarios, such as before the baby reaches a particular gestational age or when the baby does not yet have a heartbeat. They have allowed the Overton window to move leftward by constantly playing to an imagined middle ground. They have codified partiality, treating some humans made in the image of God as more valuable than others. They have completely disregarded the role of divine providence in blessing their efforts to end abortion, instead relying solely on human pragmatism to succeed in their objectives.

As the establishment Republican Party becomes increasingly pro-choice, a phenomenon which has already happened for center-right coalitions in nations like Canada and the United Kingdom, we have the institutional pro-life movement to thank. Their compromises have made them nothing more than another mouthpiece for the establishment, with the sole task of turning out pro-life votes for the Republican machine in order to retain their precious seats at the table.

Many evangelicals will recognize in other domains that such impulses always influence the missionary more than the mission field. The seeker-sensitive megachurches have become indistinguishable from the unbelievers, who they have placated to make comfortable in their assemblies. The gospel-centered movement collapsed as they labored for credibility among progressive urban elites, leading them to downplay biblical sexual ethics and other key distinctives. In the same way, the pro-life establishment has no prophetic voice. They now exist to serve Republican interests, not to bring anti-abortion interests to bear among Republicans.

As with the seeker-sensitive and gospel-centered movements, the pro-life entities have rendered themselves irrelevant. They are nothing but controlled opposition.

Christian conservatives must refuse to play this game. They should steward their time, talent, and treasure by thoroughly examining whether the anti-abortion entities they support truly work toward the abolition of abortion, or whether they exist to subversively oppose the abolition of abortion. In the latter case, they should move as quickly as possible to redirect their resources.

In both the ecclesiastical and civil spheres, God has been steadily reawakening his church, stirring them toward a newfound boldness in evil days. Even as the cowardice of institutional leaders becomes more pronounced, the courage of the remnant becomes more palpable.

Western nations are drenched with the blood of our own children. Christians must stir consciences by the unashamed heralding of both law and gospel: preaching the zealous wrath of God against those who participate in child sacrifice, proclaiming repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and passing laws which accurately reflect these realities in our civic life.

There can be no peace with child sacrifice. There can therefore be no peace with those who compromise with child sacrifice. May the Judge of all the earth break the teeth of the wicked and empower his people to stop the shedding of innocent blood, without exception or compromise.