For evangelicals, the moral outrage over abortion is about race, gender – and ultimately, power

While the majority of Americans support making abortion legal in most or all cases, 74% of white evangelical protestants believe it should be illegal, according to the most recent Pew Research poll. “Evangelicals always use morality to put forth issues that will allow them to have political power,” says Dr. Anthea Butler, Chair of Religious Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. The moral outrage over abortion masks their attempts to undermine other issues and groups of people. For them, Dr. Butler tells Ali Velshi, “the point has always been…how do we assert ourselves in the nation’s history based on our religious beliefs?”