On November 5, 2024, Donald J. Trump completed the greatest comeback in American political history, winning the 2024 presidential election and defeating Kamala Harris. Trump becomes only the second president to be elected to non-consecutive terms, the first being Grover Cleveland in 1892. For the beleaguered pro-lifers, Trump’s victory offers hope and opportunity.

While “unprecedented” is an overused word in modern politics, the 2024 election featured a series of events truly unparalleled in American history. For example, in the June 27 debate between Trump and current President Joe Biden, Biden’s halting and uneven delivery shocked most observers and led to many prominent Democrats calling for him to withdraw from the race.

On July 13, just two days before the Republican National Convention began, Trump survived an assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania. After an assassin’s bullet grazed his ear, Trump, blood streaming down his face, clenched his fist and urged the crowd: “Fight!” (Trump would survive a second attempt on his life on September 15 outside his golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida.)

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Less than 48 hours after the first assassination attempt, Republicans officially nominated Trump as their nominee. In particular, the delegates approved a reduced party platform which omitted the robust pro-life language of earlier platforms. Although the platform condemned late-term abortion, it conspicuously lacked specificity on the subject, a change that would have been driven by Trump himself.

Following the GOP convention, calls for Biden to drop out of the race intensified. On July 21, Biden became the first incumbent to withdraw from a presidential campaign after winning his party’s primary. After stepping aside, Biden endorsed his vice president, Kamala Harris, behind whom the party quickly rallied. On August 6, Harris announced Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) as his running mate. Just a year earlier, Walz had signed into law an abortion expansion bill that, among other provisions, eliminated protections for babies born alive following an abortion.

At the Democratic National Convention, Democrats revealed a platform which included a long section on abortion. The abortion message at the convention anticipated the priorities of the Harris-Walz campaign, which has poured tens of millions of dollars into pro-abortion ads.

On September 10, during their only debate, Harris tried to tie Trump to Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision, claiming that “Donald Trump handpicked three members of the United States Supreme Court with the intent that they would overturn the protections of Roe v. Wade”. For his part, Trump drew attention to his opponent’s support for full-term abortion. Despite protests from Harris (and the ABC moderators), Trump asserted, “Democrats are radicals … her vice presidential pick says ninth-month abortion is absolutely ok. It also says that execution after birth, its execution, no longer abortion, because the child is born, is fine. And that’s not okay with me.”

In the latter part of the campaign, Harris emphasized her support for abortion in interviews, rallies and campaign statements. On September 19, she told Oprah Winfrey that state pro-life laws constitute a “health care crisis.” Additionally, on October 22, Harris said he would not support any “concessions” to pro-life, including religious exemptions. Also, during an Oct. 25 rally with singer Beyoncé, Harris pledged to “restore reproductive freedom.” Campaigning the next day in Michigan, Harris again blamed Dobbs’ decision for triggering “a health care crisis.”

Although Trump’s campaign deliberately focused on issues other than abortion, the issue still arose. In particular, during the campaign, Trump repeatedly promised to reject what he described as a “national abortion ban.” On October 8, Melania Trump published a memo in which she expressed herself strong pro-abortion viewsspecifically, “A woman’s fundamental right to individual liberty, to her own life, gives her the authority to terminate her own pregnancy if she chooses.” Elsewhere, she argued that “the cultural stigma associated with abortion must be removed.”

In a disappointing result for pro-lifers, voters in seven states approved pro-abortion ballot measures. Voters in Arizona, Colorado, Maryland, Missouri, Montana and New York added permissive pro-abortion amendments to their respective constitutions, which essentially allow abortion at all stages of pregnancy. Nevada voters also passed a pro-abortion measure that must be passed again in the 2026 general election to take effect.

In a positive development, voters in Florida, Nebraska and South Dakota rejected similar pro-abortion referendums. In Nebraska, voters not only approved a pro-life measure that codified the state’s 12-week protection law in the state constitution, but rejected a competing pro-abortion measure. The victories in these three states are significant because they represent the first statewide pro-life victories since Dobbs. However, the outcome of these ballot measures demonstrates that statewide referendums will remain a challenge for the pro-life cause for years to come.

In short, in the first presidential elections since the coup roeabortion played a huge role. Although the candidate ostensibly committed to protecting life won, Trump’s relative reluctance to talk about the issue, along with the Republican Party’s truncated platform, indicates that pro-life policies were considered a political liability by Trump and many Republican operatives .

Overall, pro-lifers have a lot to be thankful for in the 2024 election outcome. Kamala Harris campaigned on the most aggressive pro-abortion platform in American history; Her commitment to expanding abortion fueled her bid for the White House, and her defeat was interpreted by many pro-life Christians as undeserved mercy. Republicans are also currently on track to flip control of the Senate and hold the House, meaning pro-lifers can expect to see a reprieve from the Biden administration’s aggressive pro-abortion advocacy. Harris.

However, as the recent campaign has demonstrated, there are those in the GOP who are not committed to the pro-life cause, and pro-lifers who supported the president’s campaign must use their political capital to hold pro-life officials accountable .

In the years after roe was overturned, Christians learned that the nation is more pro-abortion than we would have liked to imagine. However, the 2024 election results demonstrate that pro-life candidates can still win office and that the pro-life movement is still a significant force in electoral politics. Moving forward, the work of winning hearts and minds must continue in earnest, as it is clear that five decades of Roe have scarred the nation’s conscience more than we realized. Clearly, much work remains to convince other Americans that every unborn child is a gift from God.

In conclusion, the fight for life continues. Though daunting, the struggle must be engaged; the lives of untold millions hang in the balance. Motivated by love for our neighbors, let Christians be faithful in our work as we advocate for babies, mothers and their families.

Originally published at The Washington Stand.