By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
At a time when none of the 17 women currently serving in the U.S. Senate considers herself to be pro-life, a rash of feisty new pro-life women may soon be reshaping both the makeup of Congress and the abortion debate this November.
Michael Foust, assistant editor of The Baptist Press is reporting that after years of striving for more female pro-life voices in the political arena, the November elections may soon be making those dreams come true.
After Tuesday’s primaries, there are now four pro-life female nominees, Foust reports. California’s Carly Fiorina is in a dead heat with rabid pro-abortion Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA). Nevada’s Harry Reid (D-NV) is facing pro-life Republican and tea party favorite Sharron Angle in a race that is now neck-in-neck. New Hampshire Republican Kelly Ayotte is currently slightly ahead of pro-abortion Democrat Paul Hodes. The newly nominated pro-life Christine O’Donnell is hoping for a come-from-behind win against her pro-abortion Democratic opponent, Chris Coons.
“Although O’Donnell begins the general election campaign as an underdog, Fiorina and Angle are running neck-and-neck with their opponents while Ayotte is at least a slight favorite in her race,” Foust writes.
If any of these women win, which seems likely, it could mean having a pro-life woman in the Senate for the first time since former Senator Elizabeth Dole (R-NC) lost her re-election bid in 2008.
There may also be three new pro-life female governors this fall, Foust reports. In New Mexico, Republican Susana Martinez is in a tight race. In South Carolina, Republican Nikki Haley is favored to win. In Oklahoma, pro-life Republican Mary Fallin is expected to defeat Democrat Jari Askins, who says she supports abortion only in the “hard” cases.
“The culture sees women as a natural authority on this issue,” Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the pro-life Susan B. Anthony List, told Baptist Press. For too long, people have correctly assumed that female politicians are pro-choice, but this year, “those assumptions are wiped off the table,” Dannenfelser said.
Writing in a New York Times op-ed piece, Ramesh Ponnuru, a senior editor at National Review, pointed out why it’s so important to have female pro-life voices in government.
“Kellyanne Conway, a Republican pollster, says that her surveys have found that voters respond more positively to the pro-life message when it comes from women,” Ponnuru wrote. “Pro-life women won’t be suspected, or credibly accused, of opposing abortion because they want to keep women in their place; they can therefore talk about the issue less defensively than male pro-lifers sometimes do.”
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