Many victories have been gained by the pro-life movement since the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022, by far its greatest achievement. However, now is not the time to sit back and relax on the topic.
Since Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization in 2022, the court case that effectively overturned Roe, 14 states have passed laws that entirely ban abortion. At least seven states have passed laws that tighten the window within which an abortion is permitted. This is an outstanding victory for the fight for life, and these developments seem to indicate that pro-life advocates are spreading their wings across the entirety of America with rapid success.
Unfortunately, this is not the case. While at least 21 states are poised to block out a significant portion of the abortions that take place annually in this country, most of those states already had trigger bans in place in case Roe was ever overturned, and some even had relatively lower abortion rates to begin with.
Most abortions take place in blue states, which have repelled pro-life legislation and have instead entrenched pro-abortion legislation deeper into their systems and expanded access to abortion. Eleven states have abortion enshrined as a right in their constitutions, and 11 more states have extensive laws protecting it.
This dramatic reaction to the overturning of Roe by pro-abortion states reflects a concerning new discovery: public opinion has shifted sharply in the pro-abortion direction. According to Gallup, those who believe that abortion should be legal under any circumstance spiked from 25% in 2019 to 34% in 2023. On the other end, those who believe that abortion should be illegal in all circumstances dropped from 21% in 2019 to 13% in 2023.
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Republicans seem to be losing the drive to fight abortion across the country. Two of the three running presidential candidates for the GOP have deliberately moved to a soft position on abortion this year. Former President Donald Trump says that it is now the job of the pro-life legislator to “negotiate” and “learn how to talk about it,” rather than to assert strong political power. South Carolina candidate Nikki Haley thinks, “We don’t need to divide America over this issue anymore.”
Now is not the time to allow our correct stance, the pro-life stance, to grow stagnant and irrelevant. We must strike while the iron is hot and pass legislation in as many states as possible to save as many children as possible. The opposition feels desperate to grasp at whatever straws they can. Do not let them. As Speaker of the House Mike Johnson said Friday at the March for Life rally, “We can build a culture that cherishes and protects life.” Now is the time to march. Now is the time to fight.