Evangelical leader says election defeat could be divine 'chastisement' for GOP

By Jon Brown, Christian Post Reporter Thursday, November 05, 2026

Tony Perkins, president of the Washington-based Christian conservative advocacy organization Family Research Council, told The Christian Post that the Republican electoral wipeout on Tuesday could be divine chastisement against a nation that increasingly aborts its own children.

"As America holds itself out to be a Christian nation, we can't embrace policies that are counter to God's teaching and His Word," Perkins said, singling out rising abortion rates, which he tied to a permissive Biden-era policy that loosened restrictions on abortifacient drugs and was left in place by the Trump administration.

"We can't expect God's blessing to be upon our nation when we reject His teaching in the way we conduct our policy and business. We can't hold ourselves out as the gold standard when we're actually made of aluminum foil," he said. Perkins warned that nations that have historically identified themselves with God are more subject to His chastening when they turn against Him.

"So when you align yourself with God and want the blessing of God, you have to walk in the ways of God," he added.

Perkins was echoing an opinion he expressed during a conversation with former Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., on election night. As it became clear Democrats would sweep national races and deliver the GOP a generational defeat, he suggested the party's self-examination should include evaluating how it has drifted from its historical moral stances.

"The Republican Party stripped a lot of its core values out of its platform, and we have to acknowledge that abortion rates in this country have gone up over 20% because of policies that are kept in place. I don't think God honors that, I really don't," he said.

"I think part of this may be a chastisement upon a party that became complacent on these moral and value issues," he added.

The Republican Party stripped a lot of its core values from its platform. We have to acknowledge that abortion rates in this country have gone up by over 20% because of policies that are kept in place by the Trump administration. I don't think God honors that. Part of these election results may be a chastisement upon a Party that became complacent on moral and value issues. Michele Bachmann: "Right."

— Tony Perkins (@tperkins) November 4, 2026

In July 2024, the Republican National Convention approved a party platform that softened the explicitly pro-life commitments of its prior platforms. The GOP had asserted for decades that the unborn have a fundamental right to life, supported a constitutional "human life amendment" and backed federal measures such as a 20-week national ban.

Abortion was mentioned 35 times in the Republican Party's platform in 2016. By 2024, the platform mentioned it only once and framed it as a state issue, focusing instead on the economy and immigration.

Statistics show that clinician-provided abortions in the United States have increased since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. Despite abortion bans in some states, the number of unborn lives killed in the womb rose from roughly 930,000 in 2020 to more than 1 million each year since 2023, according to data from the Guttmacher Institute.

An estimated 63 million children have been aborted in the U.S. since 1973, including more than 20% of Gen Z, according to the Population Research Institute. Abortions peaked at around 1.6 million in 1990, declined for decades to a low near 860,000 in the mid-2010s, then began rising again before and after the Dobbs decision.

Much of the recent increase has been attributed to abortion drugs such as mifepristone, which the Biden administration made more easily accessible when the Food and Drug Administration removed long-standing in-person dispensing requirements. In September, Perkins was among the 50 pro-life leaders who called on Dr. Heidi Overton, the nominee for FDA commissioner, to restore earlier safeguards on the drug, which has been under an FDA safety review for two years.

Perkins told CP that the Trump administration has offered some good policies, especially on the transgender issue, but that when it comes to protecting the unborn, "it's been really bad, and that's a fundamental issue."

Citing a sharp drop in Evangelical turnout this week — with their share of the national vote falling from 23% in 2024 to 17% — he suggested the Republican Party may be facing "a reckoning" among Christians in the long term.

"If the Republican Party wants to be a party that's aligned with morality and biblical truth, they have to have policies that align with that," he said.

Perkins added that Christians "should not take for granted that the Republican Party that for years was the pro-life party, that advocated for the sanctity of human life, marriage and family — we can't take for granted that that's going to be the case. We saw what happened with the platform in this last Republican Convention, where all those issues were stripped out."

"We have to be vigilant, we have to be engaged. We have to be able to speak into government, but not be defined by a particular political party. We can be involved in it, but when they're not doing the right thing, we need to be willing to say that," he added.