Just two years ago, leading anti-abortion activists were euphoric as the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, thus ending the nationwide right to abortion.
Now, with a presidential election fast approaching, their movement is disunited and worried. Within their own ranks, there is second-guessing and finger-pointing, plus trepidation that Election Day might provide new proof that their cause is broadly unpopular.
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Michael New, an abortion opponent who teaches social research at The Catholic University of America, offered an overview of how the movement had fared since the Roe ruling in June 2022.
“Things have not necessarily unfolded as we would hope,” he wrote in an email to The Associated Press. “There is certainly a sense among pro-life leaders that we should have had a stronger post-Roe game plan in place.”
“I always remind fellow pro-lifers that we were never promised a smooth glide path to victory,” he added. “There will certainly be setbacks and disappointments along the way.”
A key reason for the wariness is the anti-abortion movement’s recent losing streak on abortion-related ballot measures in seven states, including conservative Kansas and Kentucky. Nine more states will consider constitutional amendments enshrining abortion rights in the Nov. 5 election — Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada and South Dakota. In several of them, abortion opponents tried various unsuccessful strategies for blocking the measures.
"Pro-life people don’t wear rose-colored glasses; we know we have a huge task ahead of us,” Carol Tobias, president of National Right to Life, told the AP. “Because of the massive amounts of money being dumped into the ballot measures from those allied with the abortion industry and the Democratic Party, it’s an uphill battle.”
“We will continue to educate, to make people aware of the catastrophic result if these measures pass,” she added. “I have not seen flagging energy or any loss of determination among pro-life people.”
Texas is among the Republican-governed states that have enacted near-total abortion bans. Yet nationally, Texas Right to Life president John Seago said, the anti-abortion movement “is in a critical chapter right now.”
“Following a historic legal victory, we have realized that while we had enjoyed massive legislative and legal victories in the last decade, public opinion had not followed the same trajectory,” he added.
Troy Newman, who heads the anti-abortion group Operation Rescue, recently published an online opinion piece assailing the movement he’s been a part of for 25 years.
“The tide has turned, and the pro-life message is now considered a political liability that could prevent President Trump’s victorious return to the White House,” Newman wrote.
“After evaluating the terrible mistakes of the pro-life movement over the last several years, I can only conclude that it is our fault,” Newman wrote. “We have had over 50 years to change the culture’s position on abortion only to have failed miserably.”
In an interview with the AP, Newman blamed those in his own ranks for the predicament — saying some anti-abortion leaders should have been more adamant in their positions. “We lose the minute we stop focusing on the babies,” he said.
Kristan Hawkins, leader of Students for Life of America, suggested via email that Newman’s views were ill-suited to the post-Roe era. She said the students in her organization were embracing the challenges of a state-by-state playing field.
But she acknowledged the magnitude of the challenges.
“I actually believe the biggest threat is ourselves — our mindsets — which will lead to decreased recruitment, training, and mobilization of our grassroots army of love,” she wrote recently in the conservative outlet Townhall.
“Look at the struggles we face this fall with several late-term abortion ballot referendums,” she added. “Most will likely be a political loss for our movement because, in most states, a politically sophisticated, organized, and well-funded state-wide movement is not present.”
Hawkins also acknowledged the anger among some anti-abortion activists over the inconsistent rhetoric on abortion coming from the Republican presidential ticket of former President Donald Trump and his running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance.
“I’m not here to make apologies for the Campaign and their political miscalculations, which are dividing us and could very well lead to their defeat,” wrote Hawkins.
Trump nominated the Supreme Court members who were crucial to overturning Roe and called it “a beautiful thing to watch” as various states took different directions. He has been evasive on whether he would veto a federal abortion ban if Congress approved one; his “leave it to the states” approach conveys acceptance of the current patchwork map in which abortion is widely available in at least half the states.
Eligible to vote in Florida, Trump has criticized as too restrictive a new state law banning abortion after the first six weeks of pregnancy. But he said he would vote against the ballot measure that would make abortion legal until fetal viability.
Trump’s support for a state-by-state solution was a factor in the decision of Charles Camosy, an anti-abortion Catholic academic, to declare he now feels politically estranged.
“The Republican Party has rejected our point of view. Democrats are running a candidate ( Kamala Harris ) who has made abortion rights a centerpiece of her campaign,” Camosy, a medical humanities professor at Creighton University School of Medicine, wrote recently in The Atlantic.
“Pro-lifers — those who believe that protecting vulnerable and unborn life should be a primary policy priority — now do not fit in either major political party.”
In an interview, Camosy said abortion-rights supporters were better prepared for the post-Roe era than their adversaries
“They were well-funded, they developed key relationships with the media,” Camosy said, while some Republican-controlled legislatures – in his view -- went too far with stringent abortion bans.
“I see this moment as an opportunity,” Camosy wrote in The Atlantic. “Pro-life 3.0 must welcome people from multiple political and policy perspectives, working for both prenatal justice and social support for women and families.”
Some other anti-abortion activists have forcefully renounced Trump, including leaders of End Abortion Ohio.
“We call on God-fearing American voters to withhold their votes from Trump until he evidences genuine repentance for his pro-abortion stance,” said the group’s executive director, Nicholas Kallis.
However, Ohio Right to Life president Mike Gonidakis is encouraging support for Trump.
“A vast majority of our statewide membership absolutely support President Trump and believe he would advance the protection of life at the federal level ... more than a Kamala administration would,” he said. “It is not even close."
Other anti-abortion leaders have made similar calculations.
One example: Back in April, Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, said she was “deeply disappointed” in Trump’s willingness to leave abortion policy to the states.
These days, in a move potentially benefiting Trump, the group plans a $92 million voter outreach program in battleground states depicting Harris and other Democratic candidates as “extremists” on abortion.
“It is imperative that the pro-life movement fully unify and mobilize to defeat this threat,” Dannenfelser said.
Among those embracing Trump is Frank Pavone, who continues to lead Priests for Life despite being defrocked in 2022 after feuding with his bishop over his anti-abortion and partisan political activities.
“Trump has brought in far more people than he has alienated,” Pavone said via email. “His statements have blunted the effectiveness of the dire, scare-mongering Democrat warnings that the Republicans will ban all abortions.”
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Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.