When our primary candidate endorsements were released, we took a difficult stand when it came to the race for governor, urging those who are pro-life not to vote for either of the two major candidates because of their pledge to oppose any restrictions on abortion before six months’ gestation. I now want to thank those who carefully read our rationale and gave us much-appreciated support and encouragement.
Among those who responded negatively to our decision, there was one element curiously missing – any substantive pushback on the facts we cited. As we pointed out in our endorsement email last week, with the exception of Chris Sununu in 2022, no major GOP candidate for governor in our country has staked out a position so pro-abortion. Yet, this year, both leading Republican gubernatorial candidates stated that they would not sign any abortion restrictions at all prior to 6 months.
Those Republican gubernatorial candidates made a calculated decision: they decided not to offer pro-life voters even one crumb in terms of specific policy commitments. With pro-lifers losing state-level battles across America, they decided that pro-lifers are simply obsolete – like the pro-marriage movement of the early aughts.
But this was a mistake. Whatever may happen years from now, traditional pro-lifers are still 20% of the Republican party in New Hampshire. It is not for nothing that New Hampshire is the only purple state in America that has retained any late-term abortion restriction. But if that 20% gives away their primary votes to candidates who offer them nothing at all, then we may as well be 0% – and no GOP gubernatorial candidate will ever make commitments to pro-lifers again in our lifetimes.
As we predicted in our endorsement email, we were indeed accused of being radical and inflexible in our own stance on abortion. But this is not true. The record shows we are willing to endorse candidates who espouse even moderately pro-life commitments, and we’ve promoted compromise to pass substantive legislation that moves the ball forward in the fight for every life. That is why we have a 24-week ban in a state that, only a few years ago, had no meaningful restrictions on abortion up to the very moment of birth.
The fact is, while pro-abortionists have advocated for increasingly radical policy on terminating lives in the womb, they’ve only succeeded because Republicans have fled entirely from the battlefield. I’ve been in this fight for over 30 years, but even I couldn’t have predicted where we now find ourselves, having to justify why we won’t support primary candidates who are unwilling to defend infants’ lives at 15, 20, or even 23 weeks. It doesn’t matter that a candidate may come to a pro-life event and have their picture taken. Being pro-life is about substantive policy commitments; it is not a cultural feather in your cap like eating a gyro at the Greek festival or telling voters you were an altar boy as a child. What matters is what that individual will do in office. And here, we knew exactly where these candidates stand because they’ve told us on the campaign trail, in their ads, and in their debate
Believe me, it wasn’t easy, but we absolutely know it was the right thing for us to do. Cornerstone has never been, nor will we ever be, a partisan organization. We are a Christian advocacy organization standing for life, freedom, and family in the Granite State. I wear a cross around my neck – not an elephant. If we fail to hold our politicians accountable and just fall in line as many would have us do, we will lose our independence and any impact we might have in the critical fight for children’s lives. We must be heard.
Yes, your vote is needed in elections, and we urge you to exercise that freedom. But, if the pro-life community is to have any voice or influence, we need to let candidates know their position on life is critical to our support. Primary candidates should earn our vote, not take it for granted.
