Sharing Your Thoughts: Should Christians Work toward the Abolition of Abortion or be Satisfied with Incrementalism?

The following was shared on X by Ben Zeisloft of The Sentinel regarding the incrementalist strategy vs. the abolitionist strategy when dealing with abortion:
 
"Are you disillusioned by Republican weakness on abortion? There are alternatives. It does not have to be this way. Let me explain.

If you pay attention to the Republican bickering on abortion, you will hear much about fifteen-week bans, heartbeat bills, rape or incest exceptions, and similar policies.

All of this is compromised nonsense.

These policies are part of an "incremental" strategy to end abortion: chipping away at abortion incrementally over the course of several decades, trying to save some babies as we await the conditions in which abortion can finally be entirely outlawed once and for all.

Those who subscribe to incrementalism reason that saving some babies now is better than almost certainly losing out on saving all babies, because the electorate wants at least some abortion and does not want to save all babies.

This is the strategy most major pro-life organizations have adopted over the past half century. In the meantime more than sixty-five million babies have been slaughtered.

To a large extent pushing for incremental wins seems reasonable. We all want babies to live.

But there are detriments to incrementalism: You catechize voters to functionally view certain babies as valuable and other babies as not valuable. You fail to shift culture and leave yourself at the mercy of the pagan leftists who do want to shift culture toward more abortion. You always call for something less than the final objective of totally ending abortion. You allow for a whole lot of death in the meantime.

Ultimately incrementalism is a self-admittedly pragmatic strategy driven by the fear of man.

The question is not what we can get away with before our fellow man. The question is how to fulfill our duties before God.

Let me introduce you to a better way.

In contrast to the incrementalist mindset, the "immediatist" strategy involves calling for nothing but the immediate and total abolition of abortion, without exception or compromise.

That means the aforementioned fifteen-week bans, heartbeat bills, and other incrementalist policies are not countenanced. They are recognized as wicked compromises with evil.

Instead immediatists simply call for preborn babies to be protected under exactly the same homicide laws by which born people are already protected. If we truly believe preborn babies are human, why would we want anything else?

The immediatist strategy is the antidote to every pitfall of the incrementalist strategy: You lead the voters into seeing that all babies are valuable. You shift culture instead of letting the pagan leftists shift culture. You always call for the final objective of totally ending abortion until that goal is attained. You allow for the death to be placed on the guilty accounts of those who stand in your way rather than your own account.

Admittedly immediatism is a long game punctuated by incremental victories. But at this point we see that incrementalism is also a long game. At least immediatism is a long game that can eventually end with victory.

What is the way forward for conservative Christians on the issue of abortion?

We need to push for laws which are consistent with the fact that murdering anyone, including preborn babies, should be illegal for everyone.

We need to repudiate the mainstream pro-life organizations that have killed attempts to pass these laws in several conservative states, exhorting them to repent or get out of the way.

We need most importantly to trust in the providence of God to establish the work of our hands in his good timing. Duty is ours and results belong to him. God tends to bless faithful obedience, not faithless compromise.

May abortion be abolished in the United States in the fear of God and for the honor of Christ."

What do you think?  Should Christians work toward abolishing abortion or be satisfied with the incremental approach?

Please share in the comments below!

Zeisloft has written more on this topic here.

Courage and Godspeed,
Chad

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