Bolling: A Question For My Pro-Life Friends

As the 2023 General Assembly campaign begins, it is becoming obvious that most Republican candidates are publicly supporting the proposal to ban abortions in Virginia after 15 weeks gestation. They seem to believe that this is an acceptable pro-life position, but is it?

State-specific and U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) abortion data indicate that only six percent of all reported abortions take place at or after 15 weeks gestation. In other words, 94 percent of all abortions would still be legal under a 15-week abortion ban!

I know many passionate pro-life folks who have fought for years to protect the right to life. How is it that legislation that would legalize 94 percent of abortions is now considered acceptable to these passionate pro-life folks? I really don’t get it.

Honestly, it seems to me that supporting a 15-week abortion ban is pro-choice … at least pro-choice lite! If you support this proposal you are saying it is okay for 94 percent of all abortions to continue to be performed. Think about it.

Near total abortion bans have been enacted in Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, and West Virginia.

A six-week abortion ban is in place in Georgia, and a similar six-week ban was recently passed in Florida.

Whether you support them or not, these abortion bans have a real and meaningful impact. But frankly, a 15-week abortion ban does not have a real and meaningful impact.

So please explain to me how supporting a 15-week abortion ban is acceptable to passionate pro-life supporters? At the very best this seems to be nothing more than a fairly meaningless proposal that is really designed to diffuse the abortion issue, at least until the 2023 elections are behind us.