I’ve argued that pro-lifers should vote for Trump and the Republicans this November despite their recent backpedaling on the pro-life cause, because allowing the Democrats to win will result in many more babies being murdered. We should always act to save the most babies possible. Since more babies would be saved under Trump than under Harris, we should vote for Trump and the GOP.

However, some pro-lifers have a different perspective. They argue that if we vote for Republicans next week simply because they are better than the Democrats, and they win, they’ll have little reason to revert the platform back to its strong pro-life position in 2026. If the GOP knows they can win elections without the pro-life vote, or if they know that pro-lifers will always vote for them because they are better than the Democrats on abortion, they will have no motivation to reverse course and re-adopt their former platform on abortion. Indeed, they are likely to deprioritize the issue going forward and continue making concessions to Leftists. So as a strategic move, these pro-lifers suggest that we let the Democrats win this election to teach the Republicans a lesson, namely that they need to be a strong and principled pro-life party if they ever hope to win another election.

I understand and sympathize with this POV from a strategic perspective, but ultimately disagree. There are other ways to send a message to the GOP that they need to restore their prior pro-life position without causing them to lose this election. One way is to literally send them a message. If tens of thousands of pro-lifers write the GOP and tell them they’ll vote Republican this time, but not in the future if they don’t restore their pro-life position, the GOP will get the message and hopefully reverse course in the future. If they don’t, then they may have to suffer the consequences in future elections.

Second, I don’t think this strategy would only be a short-term loss to secure a long-term gain. It will be both a short-term and long-term loss. The Democrats have already signaled their intention to pass a national law allowing abortion through all nine months of pregnancy. That would invalidate all of the state laws that have outlawed or severely restricted abortion. And we know that once a law is passed giving people certain “rights,” it is nearly impossible to take that away later.

Additionally, we need to consider all of the other long-term damage that Democrats could do to our nation if they assume power in 2025. Censorship will get worse. They could make Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia states, thereby securing Democrat rule in Congress for a generation or more. They will be able to choose the next one or two Supreme Court justices, and may even pack the court with additional justices. On top of all this there will be the continued economic consequences of their foolish economic policies of tax and spend. I could go on, but I think the point is made. The short-term losses would be immense, and those short-term losses cannot be reversed very easily, making them long-term losses as well.

Throwing the elections to Democrats may cause the GOP to get the message that they need to reverse their position on abortion, but if the changes that Democrats make in the next four years make it unlikely that Republicans will get majority power for at least another generation, then what good is the GOP platform? If they aren’t in power, they can’t implement that platform. So yes, we need to get the mouse in the GOP house, but if our method of exterminating the mouse results in burning down the house, our efforts will be in vain. I know that emotions are running high right now (as they should be), but we need to think through our response to the GOP, and it seems clear to me that the worst thing we could do right now for our country and for the unborn is to throw the election to the Democrats.