After several weeks of testimony and deliberation ending in a mistrial, the prosecution of Lindsay Clancy continues to capture national attention, becoming a touchpoint in the debate surrounding the dangers of feminism and the failures of modern psychology to address human sin.
The vast majority of conservatives recognize that postpartum challenges or other stressors cannot excuse the willful killing of three young children by their own mother. The defense team for Clancy admitted that she indeed caused the deaths of Cora, Dawson, and Callan — no matter how much TikTok influencers may baselessly blame her husband for the deaths.
The trial has also drawn parallels with the reality of abortion, as many conservative and Christian voices noted that 1 in 4 women in the United States will have an abortion at some point in their lives. They rightly argue that our allowance of killing pre-born children has naturally flowed into a disturbing cultural sympathy toward those who kill born children.
But many conservative Christians may not realize that major pro-life groups and figureheads also sympathize with mothers who kill their children — a blind spot that has allowed abortion to continue even in conservative states with new pro-life laws in effect.
The pro-life establishment groups that have led the battle against abortion for decades largely believe that women should never face criminal penalties for willfully having abortions.
When defending this stance, pro-life leaders not only point toward the perceived political risks of such a policy, but claim that cultural narratives which celebrate abortion — and even hormonal changes surrounding pregnancy — are reasons not to prosecute women for having abortions.
One pro-life lobbyist in North Dakota was asked last year by a lawmaker whether the CEO of Planned Parenthood should be prosecuted if she self-induced an abortion, namely by taking abortion pills in the middle of the state capital. The lobbyist answered that “if someone was doing that, I look at her as someone in pain,” and blamed “this culture of lies about abortion.”
This excuse could just as easily be heard in a TikTok defending the actions of Clancy.
But the claim that women are categorically second victims of abortion extends beyond mere rhetoric. This assumption guides pro-life policy and even leads many pro-life groups to oppose bills establishing equal protection for pre-born babies by criminalizing abortion as murder.
More than 70 leading pro-life establishment groups signed an open letter in 2022 discouraging state lawmakers from ever supporting such legislation. The document claims that “women are victims of abortion” and warns that pro-life groups “do not support any measure seeking to criminalize or punish women” for the willful killing of their own pre-born babies.
When writing their own legislation, pro-life groups include carveouts exempting women from any civil or criminal liability for abortion, meaning that no woman can be held accountable for prenatal homicide — no matter how brazenly or publicly she kills her pre-born baby — even in conservative states where pro-life establishment groups have institutional political power.
In other words, abortions continue in conservative states, especially by means of abortion pills, because pro-life groups oppose deterring pregnant women from killing their babies. While abortion clinics may have been closed in such states, abortions are continuing — and are more convenient than ever — under pro-life regulations with enormous maternal immunity loopholes.
By insisting that women who have abortions are always second victims, pro-life establishment groups not only deny the moral agency of women but also leave countless thousands of pre-born babies vulnerable in states that should be able to truly abolish abortion.
There are also harrowing spiritual implications to such a position. If women are always victims of abortion, then they have no need for repentance after killing their own pre-born baby. But receiving the forgiveness and peace offered freely in the gospel of Jesus Christ comes only after confession of sin and repentance. When pro-life leaders tell women they are victims of abortion, they turn women away from the cross, leaving them in the guilt and shame of their sins.
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Christians and conservatives may be tempted to believe that the cultural rot underlying the defense of Clancy is largely restrained to the Left. But such rot has seeped into the conservative movement — even the institutions supposedly protecting babies.
If we want to abolish abortion in our nation, we must pass laws criminalizing abortion as murder for everyone willfully involved, rejecting the pro-life second victim narrative once and for all.
Ben Zeisloft is the communications director of Foundation to Abolish Abortion.