Is it true that the anti-abortion side is “pro-life until you’re born?”
After the Supreme Court overturned Roe vs. Wade in 2022, the pro-choice rhetoric seemed to escalate. Pro-lifers are accused of many things, such as not caring about women, denying “essential” healthcare [1] through abortion access bans, or violating “reproductive rights.” One of the misperceptions spread by promoters of the culture of death is that pro-life and pro-family activists are hypocritical because their actions do not match their philosophy. They use this apparent hypocrisy to discount the entire pro-life cause.
There are dishonest and deceived people in the pro-life movement. This is inevitable in a movement of more than a million people. We have seen “pro-life” politicians repeatedly betray their constituents, “pro-life” political activists steal money from other activists, and “pro-life Christians” publicly lie to judges, commit adultery, and kill abortionists in the name of life.
Related: Is Abortion a Constitutional Right? The Legal Facts | HLI [2]
Pro-Life Hypocrisy?
Despite all the human flaws, this does not mean that there is inherent hypocrisy in the pro-life movement. As we will see in the following sections, pro-lifers do support women and children, before and after birth.
It’s also important to note, even if the claims were true and pro-lifers only focused on life before birth, this does not intrinsically discount the pro-life movement. A movement is most effective [3] when it is focused on a single problem. No one gets upset that the American Cancer Society is not working to end drunk driving, even though both cancer and drunk driving are prominent issues. This also does not mean that the American Cancer society does not care about the effects of drunk driving.
It simply means that one movement cannot possibly tackle each and every problem or work to eradicate all issues. The pro-life movement sees that children are being killed before they even have a chance to grow outside of the womb. All other problems in life – such as poverty, health problems, housing issues, food insecurity, financial issues, etc. – become secondary when children are not even given the chance to be born. To this end, the pro-life movement is focused on ensuring that human life is protected in its most vulnerable stage to begin with, before delving into the more detailed challenges of life.
However, pro-lifers also cannot hide behind these excuses to justify inaction. We must do what we can to support men, women, children, and families in need, from womb to tomb. As the following sections show, pro-lifers are incredibly generous with time, effort, and money in supporting mothers and children. While protecting life in the womb is paramount, helping mothers and families in need raise a child is also important.
That said, pro-lifers and conservatives do care about helping people, even after birth!
A 1996 study showed that conservatives gave an average of four times as much to charity as did liberals,1 and things have not changed since then. In his 2006 book Who Really Cares, Syracuse University professor Arthur Brooks said:
[Conservatives] gave more to every type of cause and charity: health charities, education organizations, international aid groups, and human welfare agencies. They even gave more to traditionally liberal causes, such as the environment and the arts.
And we see evidence of this even today.
How Pro-Lifers Care for People After Birth – Even with Abortion Bans
The driving force behind pregnancy centers is the pro-life movement. These centers – which are condemned and ridiculed by abortion supporters – provide free help [4] for mothers and families, enabling low-income individuals to be able to support their loved ones.
Women can get free car seats, diapers, clothes, psychological counseling, and other necessary resources to support her new baby. She can also obtain free pregnancy tests, STD testing, and ultrasounds. Some centers will give the mother a list of resources for housing, transportation, or food insecurity. Often, they’ll help mothers find a job or attend parenting and birthing classes. If the woman chooses adoption for her baby, pregnancy centers will provide adoption resources.
If a woman has already taken the first abortion pill and regrets her decision, pregnancy centers will help her find a medical professional who can prescribe abortion pill reversal. These centers also offer post-abortive counseling to women who are experiencing trauma. Moreover, the care that pregnancy centers provide is available to any pregnancy woman, whether or not she’s considering an abortion.
Pregnancy centers have given over $350 million in care [3] to women and families in just the past year. And yet, the great help and assistance they give to low-income women and families is dismissed by the popular media. Many pro-abortion activists even call for these centers to be closed, claiming they violate women’s “rights.”
Religious groups also express their native generosity in many other ways. The Roman Catholic church operates 26% of all health care facilities in the entire world, including 117,000 hospitals, clinics and orphanages, 18,000 pharmacies and 512 centers for the care of those with leprosy. This includes 911 hospitals and health care facilities and 418 orphanages in the United States.2
While some say that Catholic hospitals deny “essential” healthcare (abortion) to women, there is nothing essential about killing one’s own children or forcing such hospitals to allow abortions. Forcing Catholic hospitals to provide abortions denies the freedom of religion.
The Lutheran Church, the Jewish faith, and others have also founded hundreds of other hospitals in the United States, although many do not continue to operate under religious principles. But when was the last time you saw a hospital named something like the “Cincinnati Atheist and Agnostic Health Care System?”
There is also evidence that pro-abortion organizations routinely ignore women after abortion. Planned Parenthood’s website admits that follow-up care is not routinely done after an abortion [5]. They are happy to have the woman come back from contraception and STI screening. However, the lack of post-abortion follow-up care treats abortion as if it were a simple procedure with no negative consequences for the woman.
Women who find themselves struggling after abortion (a horrific and traumatizing event) are left alone. Lack of scheduled follow-up care puts the burden on the woman to reach out when she needs assistance. Ignoring or denying the reality of post-abortion stress syndrome [6] does nothing but hurt women experiencing grief, anxiety, and depression after an abortion. It seems that those doctors care simply about getting their money from an abortion and assume that their patients will thrive afterwards.
We can see how the pro-life cause, though dedicated to protecting life in the womb, also gives generously to ensure women have the resources they need after a child’s birth. Meanwhile, the pro-abortion movement ignores a woman’s struggles after making money off of her abortion. While surely imperfect, as all human efforts are, the pro-life movement truly seeks to give families the tools and resources they need to thrive before and after birth.
This article was originally published in May 2017 by Dr. Brian Clowes and was most recently updated in November 2024 by Marisa Cantu.
+ Endnotes
[1] 1996 General Social Survey (GSS) by the National Opinion Research Center (NORC), described in Jeff Jacoby. “Stingy Liberals.” Town Hall, August 22, 2012.
[2] “Catholic Hospitals Comprise One-Quarter of World’s Healthcare, Council Reports.” Catholic News Association, February 10, 2010. J. Kenedy & Sons Official Catholic Directory, 2011.