Last week the House of Representatives passed H.Con Res. 3 “expressing the sense of Congress condemning the recent attacks on pro-life facilities, groups, and churches. Here is some of the text: Whereas since the May 2, 2022, leak of the […]
Search Results for: Abortion
Some quick thoughts on abortion and Christian nationalism in the 2022 midterm elections
I talked to the Associated Press this week. A taste: KENTUCKY, USA — In the midterm elections, evangelical Christians across the nation reconfirmed their allegiance to conservative candidates and causes, while Catholic voters once again showed how closely divided they are […]
Mastriano: Women who get abortions should be charged with murder
The Pennsylvania GOP gubernatorial candidate made the comment in 2019 on WITF’s “Smart Talk”: Listen. The “murder” argument picks-up around the twenty-four minute mark: Here is NBC News: State Sen. Doug Mastriano, the Republican nominee for governor in Pennsylvania, said in 2019 […]
Old state anti-abortion laws are becoming relevant again
Current contributing editor Daniel K. Williams explains in a recent piece at The Atlantic: Abortion opponents seem not to have expected some of the more draconian consequences of the Dobbs decision—that anti-abortion laws would prevent pregnant women who were not seeking abortions […]
What can the United States learn from Italy’s abortion policy?
Here is Massimo Faggioli at Commonweal: Legge 194 (or “The 194,” as Italians call it), which the Italian Parliament passed in 1978, allows women to receive abortions through the first ninety days of pregnancy, after getting counseling in a public […]
How Lindsey Graham’s abortion bill is sure to backfire on the GOP
Wait, I thought conservatives wanted the people in the states to decide abortion law. Eugene Daniels and Ryan Lizza of Politico explain: After the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June, most Republicans stuck to a simple message: The decision merely […]
Episode 44: Moral Values Extend Beyond Abortion
Evangelical progressives and moderates on the eve of the 2004 election. Episode 44: “Moral Values Extend Beyond Abortion” dropped today. Subscribers to Current at the Longshore level and above have access to new episodes of this narrative history podcast. Here is a teaser: If […]
Abortion politics is not going away
Some thought that the Supreme Court abortion decision in Dobbs v. Jackson might shift the political focus this election season to a struggling economy. But this week things got more complicated. Today’s job report suggests that the economy is not […]
Is today’s anti-abortion movement analogous to the 19th-century push for the prohibition of alcohol?
Some of you may remember Chris Shannon’s recent Current feature, “Analogies of Abortion.” The piece criticized a New York Times op-ed by Georgetown University historian Michael Kazin. (Some of you will recall Kazin’s Current review of Anthea Butler’s White Evangelical […]
Send it back to the states: Kansas rejects an amendment to restrict abortion rights
Will the overturning of Roe v. Wade end abortion in America? No. Decisions concerning abortion rights will now be settled in the individual states. Yesterday Kansas decided to support abortion rights. Here is The Washington Post: In a major victory […]
Analogies of Abortion
The historical roots of “My body, my choice” invite a political reckoning
Florida is becoming an abortion destination state
Florida right-wing governor Ron DeSantis and the conservatives in the state legislature have not yet blocked abortion in the state. According to Manuel Bojorquez’s piece at CBS News, women are flocking to Florida to have the procedure done. Here is […]
Should the Supreme Court Protect Abortion Laws from Democracy?
We would like to think of ourselves as a unified nation. Our laws tell a different story.
Abortion, the Supreme Court, and the uses of history
Below is a taste of Carlos Lozado’s piece at The Washington Post. It is one of the better things I have read on Dobbs. …One of the sharpest divides in the Supreme Court’s abortion rulings is over history — what […]
Could the battle over abortion in the states result in another “Bleeding Kansas?”
Michael Waldman writes about the recent Supreme Court gun ruling: The Supreme Court’s ruling on Thursday striking down a New York gun law isn’t just the most significant ruling on the Second Amendment in a dozen years — it may be the […]
Better family policies will reduce abortions
As Fordham’s Charles Camosy writes, there is “plenty of evidence” to support this claim. Here is a taste of his piece at Religion News Service: …abortion rates (per 1,000 women 15-49) in pro-choice states such as New York (20.3) and […]
What overturning Roe v. Wade will NOT mean for the future of abortion in the United States
Readers of Current know the work of Daniel K. Williams. He teaches American history at the University of West Georgia and is the author of several books on evangelicals and politics, including Defenders of the Unborn: The Pro-Life Movement before […]
On abortion, the Trump court evangelicals need the Supreme Court. On gun violence, all they have are “thoughts and prayers.”
If you read my Current piece on Thursday or Dan Williams’s piece today and want another example of the inherent contradiction in the Christian pro-life movement, just read the recent e-mail Trump court evangelical Paula White-Cain’s “National Faith Advisory Board‘ […]
“Economically vulnerable people of color are significantly more anti-abortion than rich white folks are”
Here is Fordham University moral philosopher Charles Camosy at Religion News Service: Stop me if you’ve heard claims like these since Justice Samuel Alito’s draft majority opinion was leaked: “We need to center the stories of the economically vulnerable and […]
When it comes to abortion, conservative evangelicals act. When it comes to gun control, some call for revival but most say nothing.
In 2019, I wrote a piece at The Washington Post about the way that conservative evangelicals, mostly white conservative evangelicals, offer “thoughts and prayers” to the families of the victims of gun violence yet oppose gun control legislation. Here is […]