[In late 1983, I founded the New England Christian Action Council (NECAC) when I lived outside Boston, completing my M.Div. at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. The motto of the NECAC was “biblically committed to protecting the unborn” and my initial newsletters were entitled “Contrabortion,” written for grass-roots pro-life Christians. I started my engagement with the subject in a reactive posture, that is, defining and critiquing it. But being committed to the biblical foundations in Genesis 1-3, I grew consistently more proactive across the years. So here are the original unvarnished articles, as my thinking was at the time.]

Contrabortion: Vol. 3, No. 1, Summer, 1986

The Strategy and Mindset of “Pro-Choice” Leaders

John C. Rankin

The principle strategy of “pro-choice” leaders is defined in two capacities: 1] hiddenness or refusal to be publicly accountable for their position; and 2] motivation by fear.

Their reasons are simple. Deep down inside, I am convinced, they know they have no moral basis for their support of legalized abortion; they cannot present a positive or philosophically logical rationale to justify it. In a nutshell, they make “individual choice” a god unto unto itself, and they separate it from social responsibility. The value of unborn human life takes the backseat.

I have directly challenged advocates of legalized abortion across New England to come up with a positive rationale for abortion. And not one person has yet done so — they consistently flee such honest communication. Instead, they seek to move the discussion (in their one-sided presentation of it) away from the real issue(s), and center it instead on images of fiction and fear. Eleanor Smeal, president of the National Organization for Women, call pro-lifers “fascists,” “terrorists,” and has said that certain pro-lifers are in cahoots with Organized Crime, to gain control of the lucrative illegal abortion market after Roe v. Wade is reversed! Kate Michelman, executive director of the National Abortion Rights Action League, says pro-lifers pursue “a confrontational and volatile strategy which has created an environment of domestic terrorism.” And so forth.

Recently I was reading the literature of the Religious Coalition for Abortion Rights. The vast majority of their argument was based on chastising pro-lifers as biased, misogynists, intolerant, narrow-minded — as “holier than thou.” Every “pro-choice” group I know of seeks to paint this picture.

Unfortunately, there are enough pro-lifers who, by their actions and attitudes, supply these “pro-choicers” with all the ammunition they need. And so long as this reality persists, those who favor legalized abortion will have all the self-justifying psychological energy they need to continue their support for 4,500 abortions daily in the United States.

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