The pro-life movement is in a tough spot. The overturn of Roe v. Wade has laid bare the stark reality that the people of the United States are all too sympathetic to the systemic murder of unborn babies. But in responding to this dark moment, the movement should draw some lessons from Abraham Lincoln.

When Lincoln ran for president in 1860, the country was dealing with another dire moral emergency. More than three million African-Americans were enslaved, and half of the country was hellbent on preserving this vile practice. Yet Lincoln, the man who would ultimately be the reason that slavery was outlawed in 1865 following the Civil War, ran for president that year with a pragmatic position on the issue. He promised to keep slavery legal where it was already legal while preventing it from expanding to new territories. This was a far cry from the abolitionism that was the calling card of the pro-emancipation movement.