OPINION, By: Max Halsey
The Great Sorting
It is not often in the course of human events that a single issue changes the very foundations of the political landscape within the course of a single election.
The issue of abortion overwhelmingly pushed religionists of most stripes towards the GOP in the '60s and '70s, shifting even liberal religionists toward the middle. The decision of Roe v. Wade and the election of Richard Nixon were defining moments for the so-called ‘religious right’. Which has led to what many have called “The Great Sorting”.
As an example of this in effect: there are few “Pro-Choice” Republicans today, and even fewer “Pro-Life” Democrats. In the early ‘60s, that was not the case. You could find a Pro-Life Democrat just as easily as a Pro-Choice one. Same with the Republican party.
Unfortunately, the vitriol around this topic led to increased polarization and each party adopted opposite stances on the issue. And quickly, the two-party system became focused on more than just on politics and policy, but on hotly debated moral issues which remain contested today.
As Things Stand Within The GOP
According to PEW Research’s surveys on political affiliation based on religious identification, nearly 70% of LDS church members embrace membership within the GOP. That means that out of the 6,500,000 members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 4,550,000 support the GOP. That is overwhelming and stronger than any other religious demographic. With the next closest being Evangelical Protestants at 56% GOP affiliation. (This is an odd alignment between the two groups considering Mormons were being persecuted and killed by Protestants not many generations ago. Suffice it to say that even today not much love is lost between the two demographics.)
As of 2022, 168.31 million people were registered to vote in the USA. Of registered voters, the GOP holds somewhere around 48% of those registrations, bringing their total membership to around 77,428,800 people.
Mormons in general, and LDS in particular have a much higher than average voter registration rate, and voting participation rate with the “Mormon Corridor” (Idaho, Montana, Utah, Colorado, and Arizona) having well over 66% voter turnout back in 2020.
That means LDS people make up roughly 17% of the GOP’s turnout nationally, making Mormons a small yet powerful member of big-tent-conservatism that the GOP at large can’t afford to lose. Without us, the GOP would never win a presidential election again. And yet they are on the cusp of doing just that.
Mormons - Hard Line Libertarians At Heart
Leaving each other alone is built into our theology. To quote the apocryphal “Mormon Creed” by Brigham Young, “This is the Mormon Creed: Mind your own business. Saints will observe this; All others ought to.”
LDS, and Mormons generally tend to be this way on almost every social issue save two. Gender Ideology, a more modern issue, and a fight currently taking place within the LDS church membership to this day, and Abortion.
Though we’ll get into Abortion specifics later . . . it's probably not what our non-LDS readers think.
This stems largely from the LDS Eleventh Article of Faith, "We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where, or what they may."
Despite having been brutalized and abandoned by the federal government during our early years, used as nuclear test subjects during the Cold War, and tricked into active and willing participation in breaking up Native American families in an effort by the Bureau of Indian Affairs to destroy native american tribes, US Mormons tend to be patriotic.
Which has become a staple of GOP conservatism.
It is rare these days to find a hard-line Democrat willing to fly the US flag in front of their house, meanwhile, you can’t really call yourself a member of the GOP unless you have at least one shirt that has the US flag on it as a mode of displaying your socio-political allegiance.
Mormons eat that type of thing up.
We also tend to be more fiscally moderate than most other groups within the GOP. That means we’re willing to spend on social programs.
The reason for this is simple. Because within the LDS church, and smaller branches of the restoration, is found the most innovative, efficient, and sustainable model for a welfare system that can be found anywhere on the planet.
The Bishops Storehouse and Fast Offerings model has been a model that most other faiths have adopted in some form. Even if they are unaware of the model’s origins, its current manifestation began with the LDS church shortly before WW 2 in an effort to combat the great depression in a way that wouldn’t bankrupt the central organization.
The point is not to brag about the Bishop's Storehouse and Fast Offerings model (though I'm happy to do that all day!). But instead to explain that when we hear about programs like Food-stamps, Reduced Cost Lunches, or Section-8 Housing, we don’t have the instinctual revulsion that many within the GOP seem to have. Where they are unable to see the positives because of the waste fraud and abuse within said systems.
Don’t get me wrong, we want waste, fraud, and abuse resolved as much as the next person. But we don’t see them as unsolvable issues. As seen from PEW Research’s survey questions on the topic below.
We’ve seen welfare systems work. We’ve helped keep them going. We know that efficient and morally run systems can have profoundly positive impacts on people's lives.
We’re pro-education and pro-science, pro-modern medicine (despite recent events that have shown the weakness in that system), and pro-community building.
Culturally, we tend to be a mix of both collectivist (in fact we might have too much trust in others which incentivizes scamy MLMs to pop up in LDS areas), and individualist (private charity, fast offerings, and tithing are all voluntary and declared by the individual on the honor system).
We offer helping hands up to others both individually, and systematically. This places us in a bit of a strange place as Democrats tend to think in terms of welfare systems and Republicans in terms of private charity. We know that both are possible, and both are needed.
This dichotomy exists even in our theology: "salvation is an individual matter; exaltation is a family matter."
This natural dichotomy in every cultural and theological element has led to a fierce protectiveness of a centrist attitude. And more often than not centrist policy.
It's why when Roe v. Wade was decided the way it was, so many of us shifted parties seemingly overnight. We saw something that was wrong, and we collectively and individually sought to correct it.
Which is the very thing that more stringent Anti-abortionists need to take into consideration within the GOP. Before a rift is formed that will be difficult to mend, and the saints decide it's time to put our weight, as relatively meager as it is, in the other direction.
The LDS View of Abortion
I’m going to quote from the church’s official Topic essay on this subject:
"The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints believes in the sanctity of human life. Therefore, the Church opposes elective abortion for personal or social convenience, and counsels its members not to submit to, perform, encourage, pay for, or arrange for such abortions."
That’s a pretty clear condemnation of abortion and support for the value and sanctity of human life. And any faithful LDS member, even those who are “Pro-choice” will agree with that statement, even if they don’t necessarily agree with a governmental approach to enforcing it.
However, in this same statement, the church lists a number of exceptions.
"The Church allows for possible exceptions for its members when:
Pregnancy results from rape or incest, or
A competent physician determines that the life or health of the mother is in serious jeopardy, or
A competent physician determines that the fetus has severe defects that will not allow the baby to survive beyond birth.
Even these exceptions do not automatically justify abortion. Abortion is a most serious matter. It should be considered only after the persons responsible have received confirmation through prayer. Members may counsel with their bishops as part of this process."
Faithful members support and uphold all parts of this statement, including the value of human life, the possible exceptions, and the need for spiritual consultation with God and/or religious authorities.
Careful readers will note that the exceptions put us firmly in what in the US would be a moderate and centrist position.
More evidence for this can be found our responses to the PEW research “A Portrait of Mormons in the U.S.” on abortion.
We are far more strongly centralized on this issue than the general population with over 61% of Mormon respondents saying it should be illegal in most cases, only 9% holding the extreme position of illegal in all cases, and only 8% holding to its opposite. Adding the two centrist responses together Mormons come out with over 80% in support of abortion restrictions under the law, with exceptions being provided.
Potential Conflict
The LDS stance on abortion has put us in the crosshairs of some of the more stringent no-exceptions anti-abortionists. Some go as far as saying that the church’s stance permits selective abortions for even minor birth defects or developmental disabilities like Down syndrome. But again, a careful reading will easily dispel those hamfisted attempts at slander.
Of concern to me is the GOP's growing movement to support a full and permanent abortion ban on the federal level overriding the will of states that have enacted very liberal abortion policies.
This is a small yet highly vocal movement, led by the likes of Kristen Hawkins. According to a recent multi-hour interview with Tim Pool, Hawkins is against any abortion and was reluctant to condone abortions performed to save the mother from permanent and severe bodily harm.
And she is hardly alone in that stance.
Mormons and the Future of the Pro-Life Movement
If the pro-life movement grows into something that sheds members with every new policy proposal or restriction, the movement will ultimately fail. If these more fringe perspectives become a major force behind the GOP’s political actions and strategy going into the future, it would put LDS members directly opposed to them on two levels.
First, on the issue of abortion exceptions.
And second on our general libertarian attitude. We don’t have a very good history with intellectual or theological bullies, and we want to avoid being that ourselves.
Mormons have shown a willingness to take our ball and go home. During the Great Sorting the Democratic party lost its largest single pro-labor and pro-union demographic west of the Mississippi. Today the non-coastal western United States is seen as all but lost to their cause. All because they chose to push the social issue of abortion to an extreme, and polarize and centralize their political party around it.
I would not put it past us to get so sick of the descendants of our ancestors murderers, that we decide to do so again.
The views expressed by contributors do not necessarily represent the position of Ward Radio News. Ward Radio News is not affiliated with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Church) and does not officially represent the Church.
Absolutely not. If it came down to the two, total abortion ban vs selective abortion. I would rather err on the side of total abortion ban. When we treat the exception like the rule on a public level, we end up with radical abortion policies like we have today. And every elective abortion would classify themselves and selective due to some form of “oppression”.
Your analytics are off. The membership is worldwide and is not just here in the US. Even in the US there are a lot of children. You might want to quantify the 70% within some kinds of demographic (what did the PEW study use?)
Don't waste your time trying to bring Native Indians into the picture. They were broken up for a good reason. Between 1750 to 1900s the Indians brutal murders of white people and settlers to include their own divided tribes. Government sent the US Army to put a final stop and now we lived peace.
The church’s policy outlining exemptions to abortion is not an endorsement of that exemption nor strictly an endorsement of laws that carve out those exemptions, but simply gives direction of what would or would not merit church discipline. If laws were passed imposing a total ban on abortion that church would view abortions under those circumstances as criminal and thius meriting disciplinary action.
Most people who have anti-abortion views don’t see those exemptions at the same level as elective abortion. We don’t need elective amputations to be legal for it to be ok for a doctor to amputate a limb if necessary. Likewise, we don’t need murder to be legal to allow for killing in self defense when necessary.
If…
I see the argument but I wish to point out church policy is not a commandment. Unless we are given a commandment with "thus sayeth the Lord," this advice would be the guidance of well meaning counselors I perceive operating in "Babylon." I am dubious of the reasons of rape cases due to I found out last year I have an aunt I was not aware of for the first 39 years of my life. My grandmother had this daughter and gave her up for adoption after the biological father committed the unspeakable. From what my three new cousins tell me she was a lovely person whom they were blessed to have as their mother. I did not have chance…