Anti-abortion movement achieved goal of reversing Roe – but it is far from done

A total end to abortion in the US is the next goal – and how the movement aims to accomplish that depends on who you ask

The anti-abortion movement has historically been among the best organized factions in American politics, and for decades has had a seemingly singular goal: overturn Roe v Wade.

Last week, that was accomplished and as the anti-abortion movement celebrated its victory via the US supreme court, one question has emerged: what will they do next?

The court’s conservative supermajority reversed the landmark 1973 decision, which had granted US women the federal right to terminate a pregnancy. The end to the constitutional right almost immediately led more than half a dozen states to ban the procedure. In the coming weeks and months, more than half of US states are expected to institute severe restrictions or outright bans.

But that does not mean the end of the movement. Far from it, in fact.

“There still is a singular goal,” said Mary Ziegler, a historian of abortion laws in the US, a visiting law professor at Harvard, and recent author of Dollars for Life: The Anti-Abortion Movement and the Fall of the Republican Establishment. That goal “has never been the overruling of Roe” but fetal personhood – a legal concept that would establish “some kind of recognition of fetal rights”.

Global healthcare groups and human rights advocates have called the US court’s decision “an unconscionable attack” on the health and rights of US women and girls, warned it will cause a global chilling effect on reproductive healthcare, and that abortion bans and forced birth will exacerbate already egregious maternal mortality disparities in the US.

Nevertheless, the anti-abortion movement has made clear its work is not done. But how to set about achieving the next goal – a total end to abortion in the US – depends on who you ask.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg, former liberal supreme court justice and famous supporter of reproductive rights, had argued Roe provided opponents of abortion, “a target to aim at relentlessly”.

With the landmark case no longer an impediment to anti-abortion ambitions, “there’s much more of a kind of free-for-all about how you should achieve personhood”, Ziegler said. Now, the once rigidly cohesive movement is wrestling with the best way forward.

In Georgia, where a ban on abortion at six weeks gestation is likely to go into effect, anti-abortion leaders immediately called on the Republican governor, Brian Kemp, to impanel to pass a “personhood” amendment to the state’s constitution.

Such a law would imbue fertilized eggs with the rights of people, ban embryo selection for in vitro fertilization, and call into question treatment for ectopic pregnancies (in which an embryo implants outside the uterus and is never viable).

“We are petitioning him to call a special legislative session,” said Zemmie Fleck, executive director for Georgia Right to Life. “Brian Kemp says he is pro-life, and if he is truly pro-life, then we’re saying this is your time to protect every innocent human life.”

Fleck also opposes emergency contraception and some forms of birth control, said there should be no exemptions to allow abortions for rape, incest or fetal abnormalities, and that ectopic pregnancies should be “reimplanted” – though no such procedure exists, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

Whether Georgia Right to Life will endorse prosecuting women, Fleck said, is something the group is now actively considering.

“The fact someone is intentionally taking a life is a huge consideration, because we have laws in Georgia that pertain to someone who murders someone,” said Fleck. “But again [we] do not have a strict position statement.”

However, anti-abortion campaigners’ strategy in Georgia is just one of many to emerge in the days leading up to and following Roe’s reversal.

Former vice-president Mike Pence called for a national abortion ban. The anti-abortion group National Right to Life (NRL) issued model legislation to ban abortion except to save a woman’s life. It also suggested states ban “giving instructions over the telephone, internet or any other medium of communication regarding self-administered abortion”, a suggestion with enormous free speech implications.

Anti-abortion leaders in several states called for constitutional amendments to clarify there is no right to abortion, such as in Alaska and Kentucky. West Virginia pioneered this path before the fall of Roe, and Kansas voters are already scheduled to cast ballots on a similar measure on 2 August.

Meanwhile, the largest US anti-abortion online media site, Live Action, has been furiously fundraising to “cut through the lies about what the ending of Roe really means for children, women, and families”. One email argued treatment for ectopic pregnancy and miscarriage will remain legal, although reproductive rights advocates said access to such procedures is will probably diminish when obstetricians and gynecologists fear prosecution.

Addia Wuchner, executive director of Kentucky Right to Life, argued assertions that anti-abortion activists want to ban some forms of contraception, in vitro fertilization and “monitor ovulation” were not true.

“These are the great lies of an industry – I know they want to be called a healthcare service – that has made great profits off the back of women,” Wuchner said about abortion providers, such as obstetricians and gynecologists.

Similarly, Wuchner said concerns about the right to contraception and same-sex marriage being overturned in the courts are “blown out of proportion”. Kentucky right to life is neither working to ensure access to birth control, nor to “make it illegal”, she said.

When the supreme court overturned Roe v Wade, conservative supreme court justice Clarence Thomas explicitly stated the court should “reconsider” cases that established same-sex marriage, same-sex intimacy and the right to contraception. Thomas’s opinion, advocates fear, was an invitation for such rights to be challenged.

Debates about how to enforce abortion bans have also emerged. Some progressive prosecutors have made national headlines for refusing to enforce abortion bans. However, conservative local prosecutors have also vowed to vigorously investigate alleged abortion ban violations, such as Benton county, Arkansas, prosecuting attorney Nathan Smith.

“We’ll approach it like any other potential crime,” said Smith, who sent a letter to a local Planned Parenthood affiliate assuring them he would seek criminal charges. “If somebody reports an initial violation of the statute, law enforcement will investigate it, and we’ll proceed on a case by case basis like anything else”.

In the chaos that has followed the Dobbs decision, the long-term direction of the movement is difficult to predict, Ziegler said, though one aim remains – a total ban on abortion.

“Ultimately, the end goal is the same for everybody,” Ziegler said.

Contributor

Jessica Glenza

The GuardianTramp

Related Content

Article image
The fight for abortion rights: what to know going into 2024
A presidential election and another major supreme court case is on the horizon, after a dramatic year in which pro-choice and foes have waged a state-by-state war

Carter Sherman in New York

26, Dec, 2023 @1:00 PM

Article image
US supreme court seems skeptical of arguments against abortion drug mifepristone
Decision in anti-abortion doctors’ favor would apply across US and would likely make the drug more difficult to acquire

Carter Sherman

26, Mar, 2024 @8:23 PM

Article image
More bans and creative clinics: the future of abortion access in a post-Roe US
The federal right to abortion ended in 2022 – where does that leave people seeking to terminate a pregnancy going forward?

Poppy Noor in New York

27, Dec, 2022 @11:00 AM

Article image
Trump the hero for anti-abortion movement after bending supreme court his way
The former president was once pro-choice – but the threat he posed to reproductive rights was hiding in plain sight

David Smith in Washington

05, May, 2022 @7:00 AM

Article image
Who is Amy Coney Barrett? Trump's anti-abortion supreme court nominee
The 48-year-old conservative was favorite to become Trump’s third pick for the court, having been shortlisted in 2018

Edward Helmore

26, Sep, 2020 @9:08 PM

Article image
Iowa Republicans pass six-week abortion ban
Legislation is latest in raft of anti-abortion laws passed in states across the country since supreme court overturned Roe v Wade

Nick Robins-Early and agencies

12, Jul, 2023 @4:18 AM

Article image
Kamala Harris kicks off abortion rights tour on 51st anniversary of Roe v Wade
Vice-president is expected to announce support for more access to abortion as she begins tour in battleground state of Wisconsin

Erum Salam

22, Jan, 2024 @7:52 PM

Article image
Louisiana judge blocks abortion ban amid uproar after Roe v Wade ruling
State temporarily blocked from enforcing ban as other US states pass ‘trigger laws’ designed to severely curtail access to abortion

Martin Pengelly and Samira Asma-Sadeque in New York and agencies

27, Jun, 2022 @8:13 PM

Article image
Amy Coney Barrett dodges abortion, healthcare and election law questions
Democrats press supreme court nominee with little success as Barrett argues she is not a pundit

Daniel Strauss in Washington

14, Oct, 2020 @1:16 AM

Article image
Extreme abortion laws shine light on Trump's courting of religious right
Evangelical backing for a thrice-married celebrity is not as odd as it seems: on abortion, the supreme court and more, the president has delivered win after win

David Smith in Washington

13, May, 2019 @5:00 AM