‘Abolitionist Rising’ Becomes Most Viewed Anti-Abortion Channel on YouTube, Besting Major Pro-Life Orgs
Abolitionists Rising has become the most anti-abortion channel on YouTube, amassing over 214M views, the bulk of them coming in the last ten months. The increased success follows their successful rebrand from Free the States to Abolitionist Rising, a move they took as they underwent a new mission following the overturning of Roe. v. Wade. With a renewed focus on creating shareable content and their campaign towards abolitionism bearing cultural fruit, they continue to grow in influence, and the numbers reflect that.
Since their revival in the summer of May 2023, they’ve received anywhere from 7 million to 48 million monthly views, nearing 215M million in total.
This is in contrast to second place Live Action, the most media-savvy pro-life organization, which also has the benefit of being beloved by conservative media and supported by major pro-life organizations. (The same organizations wouldn’t give Abolitionist Rising a cup of water if they were dying in the desert, much less an ounce of positive press, platform or publicity.)
Live Action, which has been around a decade longer, has 130K more subscribers and presents pro-life ideology rather than abortion abolitionism.
Media Director of Abolitionist Rising Sam Riley was ebullient at the news, writing, “The pro-life movement is being replaced. If they don’t repent and change course, may many more abolitionist organizations make them irrelevant.”
Abolitiont Rsing is perhaps the most prominent and principled abortion abolitionist organization in the culture today. Founded in Norman, OK, their mission is to spread abolitionist ideas and support abolitionist organizations, projects, and legislation, with their goals being “the abolition of abortion, the repentance of the nation, and the glorification of God.”
The group is not part of the frequently problematic and mushy Pro-Life Movement and instead actively distances itself from such comparisons. Rather, they are wholly different in their theology, tactics, and goals, distinguishing themselves by possessing a more biblical and consistent ideology.
“We seek to abolish abortion totally and immediately. We do not call for incremental legislation that regulates the who, what, when, where, and why of legal abortion. We call for abolitionist legislation that makes preborn children equal under the law and criminalizes abortion as murder.”
For over a decade, they’ve clung to those differentiators, waging boots-on-the-ground conferences where street activism and engagement play a major role. They’ve distributed millions of drop cards, leaflets, and tracts, backed abolitionist politicians, engaged in state lobbying, and introduced abolitionist legislation that pro-life groups have consistently opposed.
These groups have included National Right to Life, the ERLC, And Then There Were None, Southern Baptist Convention President Bart Barber, and a host of other groups who are uncomfortable with legislation that abolishes abortion without exception and which insists that women who purposefully murder their babies in the womb should be treated no differently than women who murder their babies outside the womb.
While the bulk of their views come from YouTube shorts, which all have millions of views each, many of their most popular videos feature on-the-ground interactions with pro-choicers or pro-lifers spreading the ideology of abolitionism.
About Author
I had been ‘pro-life’ all my non-denom walk until I recently began to examine my theology. Besides leading me to the Reformed side,, I came to appreciate that abolition is the only Godly position to take when it comes to abortion. I appreciate the firm stance that AR has taken.