Atheists’ hugely lopsided support for choice is a simple reflection that opposition to abortion is inherently a religious position, just like creationism or opposition to LGBT rights. Anti-choice ideology is founded on the belief that a single-celled zygote possesses a supernatural appendage called a soul that makes it the moral equal of an adult human.

Still, it’s hard to recall a worse time for reproductive choice in an increasingly secular America. In the wake of deceptively edited “sting” videos purporting to show Planned Parenthood selling fetal tissue for profit, multiple state investigations have cleared the reproductive health provider of any wrongdoing – yet congressional Republicans threatened to shut down the government anyway to punish them. Then they summoned the group’s president, Cecile Richards, for hectoring, accusatory questions as if her organization had been caught doing something illegal or unethical and not providing women with legal abortions.

Meanwhile, religious hospitals, especially Catholic ones, are gobbling up their secular counterparts and then imposing bishop-decreed restrictions on abortion care and birth control. Conservative, limited-government Republicans (particularly John Kasich, the alleged moderate) continue to enact Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers (Trap laws), legislation cynically designed to be impossible with which to comply, so that clinics will be forced to close. And when none of those tactics work, there’s straightforward terrorism: Planned Parenthood clinics in Washington, California and elsewhere have been targeted by arson attacks.



It may seem hard to imagine what could change this gloomy picture – but, despite atheism’s public image as a male-dominated and too-often obliviously sexist community, atheists are getting active in the fight to preserve women’s reproductive choice.

The Satanic Temple – an atheist group, despite the cheeky name – has hit on the brilliant strategy of citing their religious liberty under the Hobby Lobby ruling to allow patients and doctors to ignore burdensome regulations on abortion care. Their first test case is still pending in the courts. (I really want to see religious conservatives try to explain why this shouldn’t work.)

We atheists can use growing clout to beat evangelicals at their own political game | Adam Lee Read more

Meanwhile, American Atheists is attacking the problem on another front: they’ve announced a lobbying push for a “Right to Know Act” that would require healthcare providers to clearly state in advance which medical procedures they won’t perform – shockingly, this wasn’t already required by the law. While this won’t solve the problem of religious takeovers of hospitals and clinics, it will help people make better choices when they have those options. The Secular Coalition for America has also advocated to permanently end the global gag rule that bans US-funded overseas non-governmental organizations from even mentioning abortion. Atheists for Human Rights offers direct grants to help pay for abortion, and Secular Woman has an “Abort Theocracy” campaign.



The increase in pro-choice activity by atheists reflects wider demographics: the non-religious are by far the most pro-choice demographic in America. According to Gallup:

Americans with no religious attachment (self-identified atheists, agnostics, and those with simply no religious preference) identify as pro-choice by a 49-percentage-point margin over pro-life, 68% to 19%. This represents the strongest propensity toward the pro-choice position of any major U.S. demographic (as distinct from political) subgroup.

Given the increasing political power of the non-religious, our support for reproductive rights has obvious political implications. As secular millennials become a larger and larger part of the electorate, right-wing religious groups fixated on identifying themselves as anti-abortion above all else will see their power dwindle.

Non-believers have a long history of supporting choice, from the 1973 Humanist Manifesto which declares, “The right to birth control, abortion, and divorce should be recognized”, to individual activists like Anne Nicol Gaylor who fought both for secularism and for choice. Now more than ever, that’s a legacy that atheists should be proud to uphold.

