Why Abortion Advocates No Longer Consider It “A Necessary Evil”

Authors: John Stonestreet | Jared Hayden

Last week, Kamala Harris became the first vice president in U.S. history to make a public visit to an abortion clinic. Though the Democratic party’s support for abortion is nothing new, Harris’ Planned Parenthood appearance does illustrate how that support has become a flagrant celebration of abortion as a public and personal good, essential to both “freedom” and to “healthcare.” At the appearance, Harris proclaimed, 

It is only right and fair that people have access to the health care they need. Extremists have proposed and passed laws that have denied women access to reproductive health care. 

Contrary to her claim, killing preborn children, whether through chemical or surgical abortion, cannot (at least in any sane reckoning) be considered “health care,” neither for the child nor for the mother. As many have noted, when a woman gets pregnant, it is not because something has gone wrong with her body. In fact, abortion is not safe for women. The chances of complications are high and can even be life threatening, and women are four times more likely to experience complications from chemical abortion than surgical abortion. 

For the child, of course, abortion ends a life that is developing. In the case of chemical abortion, the child is starved of nutrients. In the case of surgical abortion, the child’s life is ended, and the body is dismembered. Neither of those things are “health care,” at least not in a world that is morally sane. 

By calling those who hope to limit abortion “extremists,” Harris maligned and mischaracterized thousands of everyday Americans. For years, most Americans have supported legal limits on abortion. As of 2024, 66% of Americans want to see abortion legally restricted, and nearly six in 10 support limiting abortion to the first trimester.  

It is the Democratic party that, long ago, became extremists on this issue. In the past, pro-abortion candidates held abortion at arm’s length. Last year, Biden said, “I’m a practicing Catholic. I’m not big on abortion.” This year, Biden has announced that returning Roe v. Wade, which made America an outlier on abortion restriction, is his top priority.  

Harris’s appearance at Planned Parenthood signaled how serious this administration is. As Politico noted, the Biden-Harris agenda is “the strongest abortion rights platform of any general election candidate.” We could add the word “ever” to that sentence. For the White House incumbents, abortion is no longer a necessary evil. It is a fundamental freedom.  

In fact, Biden put it as clearly as possible in his State of the Union address when he chided those lawmakers who oppose abortion. “Many of you in this chamber and my predecessor are promising to pass a national ban on reproductive freedom,” he said. “My God, what freedoms will you take away next?” 

Ultimately, Biden’s remarks and Harris’ itinerary reveal priorities that may have once been implicit, but are now explicit. Their agenda prioritizes abortion because it is central to achieving the vision of sexual “freedom” and selfhood now enshrined in American culture by progressive ideology. In so many ways, abortion symbolizes a worldview in which autonomy and self-expression are the highest possible values. It’s the logical endpoint of the pursuit of freedom from constraints, devoid of any notion of freedom for a created purpose. 

By making abortion central to freedom, Biden and Harris and their pro-abortion allies have gotten something terribly wrong. Freedom to kill cannot offer the way to a more abundant life. In fact, freedom that leads to immorality is not freedom at all. It is slavery—to sin, to guilt, to shame, to regret.  

The pro-life movement has long understood this. The way to a better, freer life is not by using one’s freedom however one wants. The way to an abundant, unhindered life is by using freedom to fulfill our created purpose. We were made to love God and to love neighbor. That’s why pro-life pregnancy centers work to address real-life needs that, when unmet, often tempt the vulnerable to pursue abortion. That’s also why pro-life pregnancy centers are now targets of the political left, especially at the state level. If abortion is the issue at the center of a vision of life, pro-life pregnancy centers are now the core battlegrounds for hearts and minds. 

For now, Harris and other pro-abortion advocates are hell-bent on “making history” by enshrining the “right” to take innocent, preborn lives. We, too, must be heaven-bent that, whether a political positive or negative, we defend the right of every life to live.