Mainline Protestants, and even the forerunners of the current evangelicals didn’t give a shit about abortion until the 70s. Like, they probably would mostly say they opposed it if you asked them, but they were certainly not organizing around it. It was regarded as a Catholic issue.
What happened was school integration, actually. When the courts started denying tax-exempt status to church-attached segregation academies (whites only private schools set up to get around school desegregation), Evangelicals got organized. But publicly organizing around restoring segregation was kind of a political non-starter, and it was easier to get people excited about abortion.
I remember someone in the old r/ChapoTrapHouse shit stirring about how John Brown’s stance on abortion would be bad but like in reality he’d probably get really confused why anyone cared?
Mainline Protestants, and even the forerunners of the current evangelicals didn’t give a shit about abortion until the 70s. Like, they probably would mostly say they opposed it if you asked them, but they were certainly not organizing around it. It was regarded as a Catholic issue.
What happened was school integration, actually. When the courts started denying tax-exempt status to church-attached segregation academies (whites only private schools set up to get around school desegregation), Evangelicals got organized. But publicly organizing around restoring segregation was kind of a political non-starter, and it was easier to get people excited about abortion.
Article: https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/05/religious-right-real-origins-107133/
I remember someone in the old r/ChapoTrapHouse shit stirring about how John Brown’s stance on abortion would be bad but like in reality he’d probably get really confused why anyone cared?