Saturday marks one year since the Supreme Court voted 5-4 in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization to overturn its 1973 Roe v. Wade decision — a precedent that enabled abortions of an estimated 64 million unborn babies.
The landmark Dobbs decision held that the U.S. Constitution does not include a “right” to abortion and returned the issue of abortion laws and regulations to state legislatures. One year later, pro-life activists and politicians have used their newfound freedom to make significant strides and pass laws protecting the unborn from abortion. While the pro-abortion movement initially recoiled at their defeat in the Supreme Court on June 24, 2022, the well-established apparatus, like the vicious and mythical hydra, has grown back two heads for each one it has lost.
Leaders of the pro-life movement say they remain largely encouraged by the significant progress they have made in the year following Dobbs. However, they acknowledge a lot more must be done to convince the American public of the sanctity of life as they combat a pro-abortion lobby backed by mountains of cash, the complicit corporate media, and leaders who outstretch their arms toward every form of depravity.
Gaining Ground
Since the Dobbs decision, and as states passed pro-life laws, there have been an estimated 24,290 fewer legal abortions. The study, conducted by #WeCount, a national research project led by the Society of Family Planning, found that there were approximately 93,575 fewer abortions in states that limited abortion for at least one week in the nine-month period after Roe v. Wade was overturned. The number of legal abortions in states where abortion remained legal rose by 69,285 in the same period, signaling that some women travel to pro-abortion states for the procedure.
At the same time, abortion clinics have closed all over the country: the New York Times estimated that “at least 61 clinics, Planned Parenthood facilities and doctors’ offices stopped offering abortions in the last year.” Many clinics stopped offering abortions or closed as roughly 25 states passed or already had laws protecting life between conception and 12 weeks. Fourteen of those states outlawed abortion.
With abortion out of reach for more women, the role of pro-life pregnancy centers, whose goal is to help support both mother and baby during and after pregnancy, has become even more important. The pro-life Charlotte Lozier Institute estimates that there are nearly 3,000 pro-life pregnancy centers and maternity homes nationally, outnumbering Planned Parenthood facilities 14 to one.
Pro-life lawmakers are awake to the growing necessity of these centers, as well as general support for mothers, in a post-Roe America. For example, Wyoming extended Medicaid to cover moms through the first year after a child is born. Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves (R) signed eight pro-life safety net measures, including foster care and adoption reforms. North Carolina established $160 million for childcare, parental leave, and community college assistance. Additionally, Texas ($70 million), Florida ($25 million), Tennessee ($20 million), Kansas ($2 million) and West Virginia ($1 million) increased their support of pregnancy help centers that provide moms with free ultrasounds, medical exams, counseling, housing, and clothing.
“Since the overturn of Roe v. Wade one year ago, many pro-abortion state legislators and federal leaders have actively fought against protecting the most vulnerable among us – the unborn – by feverishly working to enact and make permanent laws that would allow for abortion on demand, up until birth, paid for by taxpayer dollars,” March for Life President Jeanne Mancini said in a statement via email.
“Despite such efforts, 25 states have taken strong and courageous steps to enact pro-life protections that respect the inherent dignity of the unborn and women. For example, 16 states now offer alternatives to abortion funding (A2A) to strengthen and support adoption agencies, as well as the nearly 3,000 pregnancy resource centers and maternity homes that exist around the nation to provide resources, care, and support to pregnant women in need,” she continued. “Over the past year, many women have shared their powerful stories on the transformational lifesaving support these centers have provided for their families.”
Polling on abortion and pro-life laws since the Dobbs decision has been somewhat varied depending on the pollster, although Americans are united on a few key abortion-related issues. Surveys within the past two weeks show (see here and here) that a strong majority of Americans are unsupportive of second and third-trimester abortions, and other surveys indicate Americans of all political affiliations support parental notification laws for minors seeking abortions.
Attacking Life from All Sides
As GOP-led states make significant gains and pass pro-life laws, Planned Parenthood, its affiliates, and other abortion clinics and organizations have been ceaseless in their barrage of lawsuits. The abortion giant has often filed complaints against an abortion restriction soon after passage, seemingly with the hopes of leveraging the judicial system to block the laws that would cripple their business model. (See non-exhaustive examples here, here, here, here, here, and here.)
Also on the state level, pro-abortion, left-wing organizations are using lower-turnout elections to introduce ballot initiatives that would codify abortion into state constitutions throughout most, if not all, stages of pregnancy, and potentially undo state laws having to do with parental notification and consent. Currently, coalitions of left-wing groups, backed by massive D.C. influence and spending, are leading ballot initiative campaigns in Ohio, Florida, Missouri, and South Dakota.
“And then there’s also Arizona, North Dakota, Nebraska, Idaho, and Oklahoma. So we’re tracking nine states where the other side is trying to put abortion on demand, up until birth, and are trying to take away parental rights around consent of a parent for a minor to go get an abortion,” Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America Vice President of State Affairs Stephen Billy said at a press conference in May.
“In many cases, those amendments are written very broadly, so they reach outside of just the issue of abortion,” Billy added.
During the 2022 midterms, pro-abortion organizations and activists were able to galvanize enough to influence voters in Kansas, Kentucky, and Montana to reject ballot initiatives that would have restricted abortion. Conversely, voters in the far-left states of California, Michigan, and Vermont passed ballot initiatives to enshrine abortion into each of their state constitutions.
“In contrast to what I believe we saw in the midterms, there’s a unity of message, a unity of [pro-life] groups,” SBA Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser said at the press conference. “…There are millions and millions of dollars of commitment to this battle. It doesn’t mean that we’ll get dollar for dollar, but it gives us the ammunition that we need to communicate.”
“We traditionally, in the pro-life movement, are not good at initiatives or referendums, because those things have been lacking, and because when we’re outspent, and the mischaracterizations are paid for by the left, we don’t have a candidate standing up on a debate stage or anywhere with an opportunity to counter those lies,” she added. “So they just get buried and written in granite, and it becomes very difficult for us. So we’re optimistic, but it is a battle on our own territory, so it obviously matters.”
On the national scale, the Biden administration has employed a “whole-of-administration” approach to furthering the pro-abortion agenda, including the FDA’s relaxation of abortion pill guidelines, and policies within the Department of Veteran’s Affairs and Department of Defense. GOP lawmakers have also accused the Biden administration of promoting abortion abroad. At the same time, House and Senate Democrats have pushed bills broadening abortion access, although the Republican-led House has been or will be able to extinguish most of the extreme proposed bills.
Both President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are working with the largest abortion groups in the country to establish their pro-abortion agenda. Planned Parenthood Action Fund, NARAL Pro-Choice America, and EMILY’s List endorsed Biden’s reelection bid on Friday, just a day before the Dobbs’ anniversary.
Biden’s Department of Justice (DOJ) has also been accused of unfairly enforcing the FACE Act by prosecuting more pro-life activists than pro-abortion activists, despite the fact that the FBI admitted last November that at least 70 percent of abortion-related attacks post-Dobbs were against pro-life centers.
Trackers kept by Catholic Vote estimate that 166 Catholic churches and 87 pregnancy centers and pro-life groups have been attacked since someone leaked the Dobbs decision in May of 2022. Many of those attacks have been claimed by Jane’s Revenge, a pro-abortion domestic terrorism organization with close ties to Antifa.
The Republican Conundrum
Republicans seem to be at odds with each other when it comes to how the country should proceed following the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision.
Some GOP lawmakers fret over talk about federal restrictions and tighter state restrictions, citing polling and the underwhelming results of the 2022 midterms. For example, Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) told CNN’s The Lead in May that the Republican Party will “suffer” in the 2024 election because of several red state legislatures’ abortion bans. Many lawmakers notably went mum on the issue before and after the midterms, despite the pro-life movement having just achieved its biggest leap in 50 years.
But stronger pro-life political leaders view post-Dobbs America as fertile soil for a culture of life, even in the face of strong Democratic opposition. Pro-life groups argue that the strongest pro-life Republicans are unafraid to address the issue of abortion head-on, going on offense instead of defense and forcing their Democrat opponents and colleagues to explain why they are increasingly supporting fewer limits on ending the lives of unborn babies.
Republicans look weakest on the issue when they capitulate to the propagandized language and concepts of the left and attempt to operate within the confines of an ideology incompatible with their own, pro-life organizations have contended.
“GOP pro-life candidates win in competitive races if they define their opponents as abortion extremists who support abortion on demand with NO limits, and contrast that with a clearly defined pro-life position centered around consensus such as pain-capable or heartbeat limits,” Dannenfelser said in a memo after the 2022 midterms. “This must be the key takeaway for the GOP as we head into the 2024 presidential cycle, especially those eyeing a run for the White House.”