The Abortion Fight Returns

^[1]1,062 words 

The Supreme Court upheld Texas’ “Heartbeat” abortion law last week, setting off hysteria on the Left and exhilaration on the mainstream Right. It’s one of the major achievements of the pro-life movement and it could set up the end of Roe v. Wade. This does not end abortion in America, but it does allow individual states to effectively ban it.

As I’ve written numerous times, abortion is not our issue, and the best stance for identitarians is staying out of it. But with that in mind, there is something peculiar about conservative arguments against abortion. Instead of warning about its threat to healthy white babies, most pro-life propaganda focuses on how it’s eugenicist, targeting blacks and kids with Down’s syndrome. The implied reason to oppose it is that it violates sacred liberal dogmas. If it was just about killing healthy white babies, it wouldn’t be so bad, but since it’s racist and Nazi, we must ban it. It’s also the only thing social conservatives care about nowadays.

This view was expressed in the outrage against one commentator who noted that the Heartbeat bills would lead to more babies born with defects. Texas’ Heartbeat bill bans abortion after six weeks of pregnancy. Richard Hanania, a centrist academic who is critical of Black Lives Matter and Critical Race Theory, said it would eliminate abortions for fetuses with Down’s syndrome.

You can’t screen for Down syndrome before about 10 weeks, and something like 80% of Down syndrome fetuses are aborted. If red states ban abortion, we could see a world where they have five times as many children with Down syndrome, and similar numbers for other disabilities.

— Richard Hanania (@RichardHanania) September 2, 2021 ^[2]

He followed up this fairly reasonable tweet with a more trollish one implying that conservative states would see higher levels of retardation if these laws were implemented. In any case, Hanania brought up a legitimate point about these laws. He wasn’t calling for the murder of the mentally handicapped; just pointing out that these laws would increase their number.

That idea was horrific to conservatives, and Hanania was promptly “ratioed.” His tweet became the basis for numerous conservative media hitpieces ^[3] and Twitter dunks. Several conservatives displayed pictures of their Down’s syndrome kids to shame the academic. Others called him a Left-wing monster. Radio host Jesse Kelly, who occasionally ventures into forbidden territory on race, said Hanania’s tweet is further proof of why conservatives should embrace secessionism ^[4]: They just can’t live with eugenics-supporting liberals.

The most notable reaction came from South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem in a FOX News segmen ^[5]t. (Yes, FOX News did a whole segment about one guy’s tweet.) Noem emphatically stated that the tweet was “evil” and insisted her state stands against eugenics.

Based on these reactions, you would think that the only reason to oppose abortion was because it harmed Down’s syndrome. Conservatives also announced their fierce hostility towards eugenics and any notion that birth control could be used to improve the population.

The whole episode reveals how distant nationalists are from the pro-life movement. Some degree of eugenics is accepted by most of the Dissident Right. We want smart, healthy people to have smart, healthy kids. People can have different views on abortion, but most are in favor of basic eugenic ideas. Not so for the pro-life movement. Any notion that we should base policy on having healthier and smarter kids is an abomination. Pro-lifers have convinced themselves that liberals are secret Nazis who agree with Margaret Sanger’s views on population control and blacks. In their view, the libtards support abortion so that there will be fewer black babies to flee the DemoKKKrat plantation.

Some people may genuinely believe this, but it’s mostly being hyped to fit in with the liberal zeitgeist. Conservatives feel that the best way to further their position is to appeal to the reigning ideology and categorize their opponents as heretics of its dogma. Abortion is bad because it’s racist and has eugenic effects. Unintentionally, conservatives demand abortion to better secure dysgenic outcomes.

In an ideal world, we could ban abortion and still ensure that mothers give birth to the healthiest babies, but we’ve essentially banned all practices that even seem to suggest eugenicism. Welfare moms get more money per every child they have, and sterilization is agreed by all mainstream parties to be a great evil. The hard truth is that without broader changes to our society, abortion restrictions would exacerbate white demographic decline and dysgenic births. It’s not the increasingly barren white middle class that’s getting abortions. Abortion restrictions would do little to increase the white birth rate.

But we shouldn’t expect Republicans to lay off abortion, even if it hurts them at the ballot box. It’s the only issue social conservatives have left to fight over. They gave up on gay marriage, and they’re not even sure how to fight back against trans indoctrination. Censoring violent and sexualized media is a forgotten memory. Their sole reason for existing today is abortion. This is their civilizational issue, and they’re gonna make sure the party fights for it. With basically nothing else to offer the Religious Right, Republicans double down on abortion to satisfy this constituency. It doesn’t matter if it will alienate other voters.

Regardless of your views on abortion, it is admirable how the pro-life movement can force a party to focus on an issue that may hurt it in elections. There’s a lesson here. If there were a constituency which demanded that the Republican Party do something to reduce immigration and fight anti-white racism, and insisted that their continued support depended on it, the GOP would listen. Republicans cannot be pro-choice and hope to retain their current base. It would be a major milestone if the Republicans were forced to deal with the immigration boosters and BLM supporters in the same way. To make that happen, you’d have to organize a constituency and make them fervent crusaders for these issues. Tucker Carlson is doing a commendable job of pushing ordinary conservatives in that direction. There’s a decent chance that this constituency will form very soon.

Whatever happens with the Heartbeat bill or Roe v. Wade is not of paramount concern for identitarians. Banning abortion doesn’t advance our core issues, and even hurts them in some ways. There are much more pressing matters for us.

*  *  *

Counter-Currents has extended special privileges to those who donate $120 or more per year.

• First, donor comments will appear immediately instead of waiting in a moderation queue. (People who abuse this privilege will lose it.)
• Second, donors will have immediate access to all Counter-Currents posts. Non-donors will find that one post a day, five posts a week will be behind a “paywall” and will be available to the general public after 30 days.

To get full access to all content behind the paywall, sign up here: