The Real Reason Behind the Post-Election Panic over Birth Control and Abortion
According to an Associated Press article from November, there was a significant “surge” in demand for long-term birth control, sterilization, and chemical abortions following the election. One company saw a 966% spike in sales of “emergency contraception” and abortion pills in the three days after Donald Trump’s re-election. The demand for a “value pack” of one particular type of “morning after” pill increased by 7,000% in a week! Planned Parenthood also reported an explosion in demand for abortion pills, long-acting contraception like IUDs, and vasectomies.
The reaction was strange, really, considering that the Republican Party gutted their platform on abortion, and President-elect Trump repeatedly promised not to block access to abortion pills. Even the AP admitted that “it’s unclear what—if much—will be done regarding access to contraceptives of any kind during the second Trump administration.”
The most obvious reason for the fearmongering, stockpiling of pills, and scheduling of appointments is just politics. The left regarded “reproductive health care” as their best and perhaps only winning issue, so Vice President Harris repeatedly threatened that Trump and Republicans would take away these “women’s rights” and push a national ban on abortion. After a decade of Handmaid’s Tale references from media and politicians, many Americans are convinced of an impending theocracy that will enslave women and force them into pregnancy. The Trump campaign obviously agreed that abortion was a losing issue for Republicans.
Still, many pro-abortion Americans are running and screaming right now, but it’s not clear from what. The pro-choice, prophylactic panic resembles a Proverb that says, “The wicked flee when no one pursues…” This is another way that the sexual revolution has disconnected people from reality.
The other ways our bad ideas about sex have divorced us from reality are many: separating sex from procreation, redefining sex as a merely recreational activity, centering sex as the source of identity, freedom, and dignity, treating children as a commodity, and disconnecting parents from their obligations to their children. The list of consequences and victims of this full-on social experiment in denying reality goes on and on.
As Bethel McGrew concluded in a WORLD opinion piece back in November, the left-wing meltdowns about abortion revealed a “spiritual darkness far deeper than the political discourse of the day.” Rather, the reactions “reveal(ed) a generation unmoored—from family, from community, from all the old tools of sensemaking that used to ground a young American’s identity.”
In other words, for many, the panic wasn’t an act. Lacking the security and hope once provided by stable families, strong communities, and faith, they grasp onto “rights” for meaning and validation. If those “rights” are all one has, and if those “rights” come from Washington, then an election really can feel like the end of the world.
This is our mission field. These are our neighbors we are to love. This is part of the brokenness we are called to restore. America is filled with image-bearers at war with themselves. The separation of sex and pregnancy both represents and worsens a deep cultural damage that has taken generations to inflict and will take generations to repair. Even if the government were interested in tackling such problems, it could not. The destruction of relationships and the fear of parenthood can only be healed by re-embracing and celebrating God’s good design. We have much work—and prayer—ahead of us.
Photo Courtesy: ©Image created using DALL.E 2024 AI technology and subsequently edited and reviewed by our editorial team.
Published Date: January 17, 2025
John Stonestreet is President of the Colson Center for Christian Worldview, and radio host of BreakPoint, a daily national radio program providing thought-provoking commentaries on current events and life issues from a biblical worldview. John holds degrees from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (IL) and Bryan College (TN), and is the co-author of Making Sense of Your World: A Biblical Worldview.
The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of CrosswalkHeadlines.
BreakPoint is a program of the Colson Center for Christian Worldview. BreakPoint commentaries offer incisive content people can't find anywhere else; content that cuts through the fog of relativism and the news cycle with truth and compassion. Founded by Chuck Colson (1931 – 2012) in 1991 as a daily radio broadcast, BreakPoint provides a Christian perspective on today's news and trends. Today, you can get it in written and a variety of audio formats: on the web, the radio, or your favorite podcast app on the go.
