Abortion opponents are rallying behind the theme “Life Empowers: Pro-Life Is Pro-Woman” at this year’s March for Life, a chant intended to flip the script of liberal feminist rhetoric that says being “pro-woman” means backing abortion rights.
Activists have been overjoyed with President Trump, who spoke at Friday’s protest, for following through on his promises to advance their cause. Now, they’re making it a top priority to have him reelected in November as part of their decadeslong fight to overturn Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court ruling that legalized abortion nationwide.
But should they be successful in further restricting abortion with the help of Trump-appointed conservative justices and Republican legislators, their “pro-woman” rhetoric would be put to the test. More than 1.7 million unintended pregnancies occur in the United States every year, and an estimated 860,000 pregnancies end in abortion.
Past studies have shown abortions are most common among women who are economically disadvantaged. They turn to abortion because they can’t afford to have a baby and because the pregnancy comes at a time in their lives when they feel having a child would derail plans to finish school, advance at work, or care for their other children. If abortion were to become illegal in some states, the troubles women face in America, many of them made more difficult by an unplanned pregnancy, would be unchanged.
Yet influential members of the anti-abortion movement aren’t uniting behind social, health, and economic policies to reduce unintended pregnancies or ease the burdens of poverty and single parenthood. Despite the “pro-woman” theme at the March for Life, anti-abortion activists are sticking to a narrow strategy of pushing for abortion to become more restricted, believing that should be the priority.
A ‘laser focus’ on abortion law
“If the very basic right to live, which is the most basic of human dignities, is not given, then the full human flourishing of the person can’t happen,” said Jeanne Mancini, president of March for Life.
Anti-abortion activists say that a narrow focus is typical for advocacy organizations and note that there are organizations who are devoted to addressing many of the other ancillary issues, from paid family leave to affordable child care.
“We are focused on saving lives of unborn children,” said Mallory Quigley, spokeswoman for Susan B. Anthony List, which works to elect anti-abortion politicians. “We think our cause deserves a laser focus.”
SBA List and other activist groups want the Senate to vote on a bill that would ban abortions after 20 weeks in pregnancy and for lawmakers to force a vote on a House bill clarifying that babies born alive after botched abortions receive the same care as those born prematurely.
The risks of siding with a political party
As Democrats have fallen into lock-step with the abortion rights movement, anti-abortion activists on the other side have leaned on Republicans to support restrictions, even though allying themselves with the GOP creates the risk of getting entangled in other parts of the conservative political agenda. The strategy means aligning with politicians who have also worked to limit government assistance for healthcare, housing, and food. Doing so has opened them up to criticism from opponents, including Planned Parenthood, which itself weighs in on policies beyond abortion laws.
“For too long, anti-abortion groups and politicians have tried to restrict people’s access not just to abortion — a safe, legal medical procedure — but to other critical programs like Medicaid, SNAP, and federal housing assistance,” said Jacqueline Ayers, Planned Parenthood’s vice president of government and public policy.
Jennifer Nelson, professor of women, gender, and sexuality studies at the University of Redlands, said the idea of making abortion illegal is a “hard pill to swallow” for feminists, who would argue that abortion would only be harder to get and more dangerous.
“It’s always been puzzling to me that feminists and people who are anti-abortion can’t ally around some of those larger proportional issues around healthcare for pregnant women and children,” she said, though she acknowledged the polarization of today’s politics has a lot to do with it.
Anti-abortion groups haven’t tried to counter criticisms by attaching a suite of other policies to bans, whether it be improving access to birth control, expanding government-funded healthcare coverage to low-income women post-birth, or boosting help to mothers who give birth to babies with severe disabilities.
“Within the pro-life movement, there has been an underestimate of the degree of social services that would need to be provided if the restrictive abortion laws were to be effective,” said Daniel Williams, an outside expert who is a history professor at the University of West Georgia and author of the book Defenders of the Unborn.
Activists look beyond government programs
Many in the anti-abortion movement, though, are skeptical that large government social programs are the best response, or subscribe to a philosophy that stresses working at the local level to support women. For instance, there are more than 2,700 crisis pregnancy centers around the U.S. that counsel women out of abortion and toward motherhood or adoption, and some are tied to maternity homes that provide women with temporary, rent-free housing. While some crisis pregnancy centers have come under fire in a handful of liberal states and have been branded as “fake clinics” by the abortion rights movement, those who run them say they’re clear about their intentions.
“There are literally thousands of resources out there — pregnancy homes, adoption agencies — but there is a huge disconnect between what is out there and what is being marketed,” said Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America, whose organization pushes colleges to become friendlier to student mothers.
One emerging anti-abortion women’s healthcare chain, called Stanton Healthcare, has ambitions of becoming an alternative to Planned Parenthood, but without offering abortion or contraception. The organization offers health exams and supplies to pregnant women and their babies without charging them.
“It’s not just, ‘Hope you choose life for your baby and it all works out for you,’” said Brandi Swindell, Stanton’s founder and CEO. “We navigate this with them.”
But these types of networks aren’t yet adequate to meet the demand. Still, anti-abortion activists say their cause is “pro-woman” in other ways. Laura Echevarria, spokeswoman for the National Right to Life Committee, said its position stresses that women don’t have to turn to abortion to be able to compete with men.
“They say you can’t finish school and be a success and have that baby,” Echevarria said. “We are saying you can. There are people who are wiling to help you. … That is the message we want to convey. That’s pro-life and pro-woman.”
She noted the movement is largely run by women, including those who have had abortions themselves and want to protect other women from doing the same, even though “our opponents often want to characterize the pro-life movement as a bunch of old men who are trying to control women.” Polling shows women are just as divided over abortion as men are.
The costs of maintaining a big-tent movement
Practically speaking, the anti-abortion movement, like many other social causes, risks losing supporters if it ventures into other territory. Catholics would balk at support for broader access to contraception, for instance, and evangelicals tend not to support the expansion of government programs.
“They want people to care about their issue, and they don’t want it to become clouded by other things people might be committed to,” Ziad Munson, an associate professor of sociology at Lehigh University and author of the book The Making of Pro-Life Activists, said of abortion opponents. “Even though it might be useful to solving the problem, it can be detrimental to attracting and motivating new activists.”
To be sure, there are many branches within the anti-abortion movement, but groups with a singular cause have been the most successful at influencing state and federal legislators. Those who have strayed into other policy areas say they get iced out.
Democrats for Life, which uses “pro-life for the whole life” to define its cause, was shunned by the broader anti-abortion movement and by Democrats after it supported Obamacare. Kristen Day, president of the group, said the organization backs policies that address “the whole essence of what it takes to be the parent.” It does support abortion bans, as well as policies to support people facing unplanned pregnancies.
“When you look at the average person, these programs make a difference in a lot of people’s lives,” Day said. “We don’t see it as pro-life to cut people off.”
The Source, a chain of anti-abortion clinics in Texas, is going to start offering birth control to patients in February alongside other medical services, said the organization’s CEO, Andy Schoonover. He calls the approach “pro-informed choice” and said he was “getting blowback from some of the large pro-life organizations” for his plans.
“By increasing access to these really necessary healthcare services free of charge, or at a really low cost, we can reduce the number of abortions by providing women with all kinds of information,” he said.
There are small signs that those who believe they’re close to a future in America in which abortion is far more limited are starting to think about what that will mean for them, even though they aren’t backing specific policies outside abortion limits. Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of SBA List, stressed that the movement should not get ahead of itself, given that there’s an election ahead that could derail its efforts, but said that advocates such as her should start having discussions about: “What does a truly pro-life America look like?”
“As we get close and as we have formed a more pro-life heart in America, especially in the majority of the states, it’s the time to start talking about — what does it look like when we succeed?” she said.
Hawkins of Students for Life said activists could start “casting that vision for a post-Roe America.”
“When you look at an America without legal abortion, there are things we are going to have to have conversations about,” she said. “How do you adequately support women? What are we going to do? What is the practicality here? Where are women going to turn?”
