Since Donald Trump won the election, many women have taken to worrying about the availability of birth control, abortion, and other reproductive “rights.”  But don’t worry, President-elect Trump isn’t going to take away your right to reproduce.  He may, however, along with the Republican-controlled Congress, seek to enhance greater respect for the written Constitution and the rule of law through Supreme Court nominations. It is also likely that the Republicans will seek to enshrine conservative values in the legislation they pass.  

It is no small matter that the American people voted Republicans into power in both houses of Congress, the White House, and a majority of state legislatures and governorships.  The Obama Administration pushed too far and too fast to the Left, and as a result, the political pendulum swung back towards the Right.

Abortion and contraceptive mandates are attempting to replace the individual right to follow one’s conscience. The nation is not nearly as pro-choice as some would like to think, including young people.  In a twist on typical ideologies, millennials are actually quite conservative when it comes to abortion.  According to a June 30 article in the Washington Times, “[a] survey found that 53 percent of millennials believe abortion should be illegal in all or most circumstances, with 17 percent saying abortion should never be legal and 36 percent saying it should be legal only in extreme cases.”  These statistics are more in favor of pro-life policy than preceding generations, and as more millennials come of age and enter the electorate we will likely see a shift in public policy to match their beliefs.

This shift can be attributed to more widespread understanding of life within the womb.  It is now common knowledge that a fetus has its own unique set of DNA from conception, a beating heart at three weeks, and can respond to sound and touch stimulus at sixteen weeks. While these discoveries have changed the minds of many ordinary people, the Democratic party platform’s stance on abortion has become even more radical, moving from “safe, legal and rare” to “on demand and funded by taxpayers.”   

Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider, has given millions of dollars to the Democratic party to avoid being held to same same standards as other medical facilities but still receive federal funding.  Defunding Planned Parenthood should be the first thing President Trump does upon assuming office.  The company has lied about providing mammograms (source: factcheck.org). It has lied about how abortion only makes up three percent of its services (source: liveaction.com), and it has lied about how poor women will no longer be able to receive health services if it loses federal funding. If each of Planned Parenthood’s 665 facilities closed, federal funding could be redirected towards 13,540 comprehensive health care clinics, according to a study by the Alliance Defending Freedom and the Charlotte Lozier Institute.   

Access to birth control will likely not be impeded under the Trump administration, though the law may no longer compel private employers to provide it through their health insurance plans.  The prevalence of birth control is a symptom of a much deeper problem in contemporary society, namely the separation of sex from one of its most important purpose, which is to make new humans.  But that’s a column for another time.  The most notable effect of the Trump Administration on birth-control will hopefully be the reaffirmation of the cherished American liberty of conscience by not mandating employers to cover birth control when they see it as a moral wrong.  This is the same liberty recognized in the right of religious pacifists to refrain from military service in war time, and the right of high school students to refrain from reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.

The social tenets of the Left – unrestricted abortion, free contraceptives and even now assisted suicide – are all pillars of what has rightly been called a “culture of death” because it represents a reorientation of society away from protection of the most vulnerable among us.   While the Left has supported many admirable causes, these have been overshadowed by the crusade against liberty of conscience and disregard for the natural law. On Nov. 6, American voters chose a new and hopefully more life-affirming path for the country, from which everyone, especially women, will benefit.