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Last week’s constitutional amendment vote in Ohio is just the start of a wide-ranging plan to obliterate abortion limits in red states, say pro-life advocates, who are urging Republican leaders, starting with the presidential primary candidates, to fight back.
Leaders of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America urged the GOP hopefuls to make a forceful case for abortion limits next week at their first primary debate, Aug. 23 in Milwaukee, arguing that the “ostrich strategy” is threatening the pro-life measures passed in 25 states since the fall of Roe v. Wade.
Candidates who fail to champion a “reasonable consensus limit” on abortion, such as banning most procedures after 12-15 weeks’ gestation, “fail to gain the advantage the abortion issue will bring you,” SBA President Marjorie Dannenfelser said.
“Which is exactly the problem with ballot initiatives in the states,” she said on a Tuesday press call. “State legislators, delegations, governors, if they fail to speak, then we can’t overcome the financial advantage the other side has. The same is obviously true on the national level. And the same will be true on what happens on that debate stage will affect state ballot initiatives.”
She said the “head-in-the-sand [strategy] will communicate expected losses, and that is not to be abided.”
The warning came with the pro-choice movement, led by the American Civil Liberties Union and Planned Parenthood, waging a “national coordinated strategy” to wipe out pro-life laws in red states through the initiative process, starting in Ohio.
A measure on the November ballot would add to the state constitution an amendment guaranteeing the “right to make and carry out one’s own reproductive decision,” including abortion, and prohibiting the state from placing a “burden” on those who seek to do so.
Pro-choice advocates won a key victory in the Aug. 8 special election when voters defeated Ohio Issue 1, which would have required proposed state constitutional amendments to pass with 60% of the vote. The measure lost 57% to 43%.
“This measure was a blatant attempt to weaken voters’ voices and further erode the freedom of women to make their own health care decisions,” President Biden said after the vote. “Ohioans spoke loud and clear, and tonight democracy won.”
Issue 1 was widely seen as a proxy for the looming abortion fight, but Ms. Dannenfelser insisted it wasn’t a “referendum on abortion,” arguing that opponents barely mentioned abortion and instead framed it as a threat to democracy and “majority rule.”
Restrictions on abortion were passed or automatically enacted via trigger laws in 25 red states after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022 in the Dobbs v. Jackson ruling, sending decision-making on pregnancy termination back to the states.
Activists are working in at least nine states to place pro-choice proposals on the November 2024 ballot, said Billy Valentine, SBA vice president of political affairs.
“Their state-level strategy is using the states that allow the citizen-led ballot initiative process to pick off our states with strong pro-life laws,” Mr. Valentine said. “Ohio is going to be the first to go here in November 2023. The other side is organizing right now in Arizona, in Florida, in Missouri and in North Dakota.”
He said it was “anything but a grassroots effort,” warning there is “big, big money flowing into the states” to wage the ballot fights.
Many national Republicans took the position that abortion should be left to the states after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022, a tactic that pro-life leaders blamed for the party’s weaker-than-expected showing in November.
Ms. Dannenfelser praised former Vice President Mike Pence and Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina for their pro-life advocacy on the campaign trail.
“I think Mike Pence and Tim Scott have been the most clear so far,” she said. “They’ve made it very clear that they’re pro-life, but where did they start? They started by attacking late-term abortion. They’re being clear, they’re being concise, and they do a good job of going on offense when they say where the Democrats stand.”
Pro-life groups have pushed for a “national minimum standard” such as the 15-week gestational limit introduced last year by Sen. Lindsey Graham, South Carolina Republican, while Democrats have been largely mum on whether they support any limits on abortion.
Polls show that a majority of Americans support restricting most abortions to the first trimester, or 12 to 15 weeks’ gestation.
“We saw how that went last cycle for Republicans when they were not clear on where they stood and did not contrast with the Democrats,” Mr. Valentine said. “We know that the presidential nominee for the party is going to set the tone for the entire party and all the state gains, and that’s why we’re insistent that they have a clear, winning position where consensus already is.”
He added that “that’s what we’re demanding of every GOP presidential candidate running.”
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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