{"id":2027617,"date":"2023-09-11T03:08:01","date_gmt":"2023-09-11T07:08:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/state-level-abortion-losses-are-no-reason-to-shy-away-from-pro-life-messaging\/"},"modified":"2023-09-11T03:12:16","modified_gmt":"2023-09-11T07:12:16","slug":"state-level-abortion-losses-are-no-reason-to-shy-away-from-pro-life-messaging","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/state-level-abortion-losses-are-no-reason-to-shy-away-from-pro-life-messaging\/","title":{"rendered":"Don&#8217;t Avoid Pro-Life Messaging Despite State Abortion Setbacks."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">16<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fstate-level-abortion-losses-are-no-reason-to-shy-away-from-pro-life-messaging%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2027617&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div class=\"article-content\">\n<h2>Reflecting on the Pro-Life Movement&#8217;s Defeats<\/h2>\n<p>At a closed-door <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/politics\/elections\/senate-republicans-seek-winning-path-on-abortion-restrictions-175d3eab\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">meeting<\/a> last week,\u200b Sen. \u200bMitch McConnell and \u200bother Republican\u200c senators were briefed \u2063on a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.onenationamerica.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Senate-Presentation-IV.pdf\">new study<\/a> encouraging\u200d them to move away from\u200c \u201cpro-life\u201d language as potentially alienating voters in the wake of <em>Dobbs<\/em>. This report\u200c was a direct response to a string of defeats \u2064the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/covid-has-killed-her-hundreds-of-thousands-but-abortion-has-killed-her-tens-of-millions\/\" title=\"COVID Has Killed Her Hundreds of Thousands, But Abortion Has Killed Her Tens of Millions\">pro-life movement<\/a> has \u200cexperienced at the ballot box over the past year, mainly on proposals to amend state constitutions.<\/p>\n<p>Proposals to neutralize\u2064 the \u200cstate constitution as a source of abortion rights \u2063were rejected by voters\u2063 in Kansas and \u200bKentucky, while,\u200d in \u200bCalifornia, Michigan, and Vermont, voters\u2062 approved proposals to add \u200bso-called abortion rights\u2062 to \u200btheir state constitutions. The outcomes \u200bin California\u200b and Vermont were \u200dnot surprising and, in any event, neither state \u2063was\u200d likely \u2062to regulate, much less prohibit,\u200c abortion. But the\u200b outcomes in Kansas, Kentucky, and, particularly, \u2062Michigan\u2064 were very disappointing. \u200bThe vote in Michigan\u2063 effectively overturned 50 years of successful pro-life advocacy in the state, wiping out not only the pre-<em>Roe<\/em> \u2063law prohibiting\u2064 abortion but a broad spectrum\u200c of \u200cpost-<em>Roe<\/em> laws regulating\u2064 abortion.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<h3>Reflection \u200cand Perspective<\/h3>\n<p>All of\u200b these results call\u2064 for reflection by the pro-life movement.\u200d Reflection, not despondency, for all great\u2062 social\u2062 movements\u2064 take time and often experience defeats\u2063 on the way \u200cto ultimate victory. After all, it took almost 60 years for the Supreme Court, in <em>Brown v. Board of\u2063 Education<\/em> (1954) to overrule <em>Plessy v. Ferguson<\/em> (1896) and ban segregation \u2062in public schools, \u200dand almost 50 years to persuade the Supreme Court, in <em>Dobbs v. Jackson Women\u2019s Health Organization<\/em> (2022) to overrule \u200d <em>Roe v. Wade<\/em> (1973). Overruling <em>Roe<\/em> was the indispensable \u200bstep \u2014 but only the first \u2014 toward restoring legal protection for unborn children. And, with respect to the issue of state ballot proposals, something else is called for in addition \u200cto reflection, and that is perspective.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>What must be recognized at the outset is that it is \u2064not possible for \u200dadvocates \u2063of legal abortion to \u201crun the table,\u201d so to speak, with\u2063 citizen initiatives seeking to constitutionalize abortion \u201crights,\u201d thereby bypassing conservative\u2062 legislatures and nullifying pro-life legislation. More \u200dthan two-thirds of the states allow their state\u200b constitutions to be amended <em>only<\/em> by a measure proposed by the state legislature, while less than one-third also allow amendments to be proposed by a citizen initiative.<\/p>\n<p>Of the 25\u200d states \u2063that \u200dhave laws on the books prohibiting abortion through part or all of pregnancy, only nine allow citizen initiatives to be used to amend their state constitutions. And of those nine states, citizen initiatives to constitutionalize abortion rights have been proposed \u2062in six states \u2014 Arizona, Florida (which requires approval of 60 percent of the votes \u200dcast for an amendment), Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, and South Dakota (to date,\u200d only the Missouri \u200dand Ohio measures \u200chave qualified for the ballot). No such initiative has \u2063(yet)\u200c been undertaken in Arkansas, \u200bNorth Dakota, or Oklahoma. There is, in sum, a very\u200c limited number of states in which a citizen initiative constitutionalizing a right to abortion could be pursued,\u2062 and even fewer in which such a measure would likely be proposed,\u2062 qualify for the ballot, and be \u2062approved by the voters.<\/p>\n<p>Some political perspective is also in order. It must be acknowledged that on the same day Michigan voters approved a citizen initiative to constitutionalize abortion rights, they also (barely) turned over control of the state legislature to Democrats.\u2062 But the outcome of ballot measures is not necessarily a reliable proxy for predicting elections to\u200c public office.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<h3>Results and Future Possibilities<\/h3>\n<p>For example, in\u200c Montana, \u200bon the same \u200cday voters rejected a legislatively-sponsored, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/gop-presidential-candidates-senators-urge-christians-to-fight-for-life-truth\/\" title=\"GOP Senators and Presidential Candidates call on Christians to defend life and truth.\">pro-life ballot measure<\/a>\u200b (a statute, not a state constitutional amendment), they \u2062also decided to retain the Republicans in control of their legislature. Apart\u200d from Michigan, Republicans \u200clost control\u200b of only two other legislative chambers \u2014 the Minnesota Senate and the Pennsylvania House \u2014 in contests that had no apparent relationship to any proposed or pending abortion legislation.<\/p>\n<p>Republicans kept control of\u200b every other legislative chamber they had controlled before the election (57 of 88 chambers for which elections were held in\u200b 2022), including those legislatures that, prior to the election, had enacted <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/what-actually-happens-if-roe-v-wade-is-overturned\/\" title=\"What Actually Happens If Roe v. Wade Is Overturned?\">laws prohibiting abortion<\/a>. All 12\u2062 incumbent, pro-life, Republican governors (including several who had <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/state-level-abortion-losses-are-no-reason-to-shy-away-from-pro-life-messaging\/\" title=\"Don't Avoid Pro-Life Messaging Despite State Abortion Setbacks.\">signed bills prohibiting abortion<\/a>) were reelected, and a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-last-blue-dogs-local-democrats-call-on-party-to-save-hyde\/\" title=\"The Last Blue Dogs: Local Democrats Call on Party To Save Hyde\">pro-life candidate<\/a> \u2062(Sarah Huckabee Sanders) was elected governor of Arkansas. And \u2063although Republicans lost control of the Wisconsin Supreme \u2064Court earlier this year, they won control of the North Carolina Supreme\u200c Court last November.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Since\u2063 <em>Dobbs<\/em>, no state supreme court has recognized a broad right to abortion, while five state\u200b supreme courts have\u2062 either \u200cheld that their state \u2064constitution does not protect a right to abortion\u2063 (Idaho and South Carolina) or protects such a right only under narrow circumstances\u200b (Indiana, North Dakota, and Oklahoma).\u2062 And, shortly before <em>Dobbs<\/em> \u200cwas decided, the Iowa Supreme Court <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/iowa-abortion-not-protected-state-constitution-court-ruling\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">overruled<\/a> its earlier decision recognizing a state constitutional right to \u2064abortion (and the Florida Supreme Court is expected to do so, as well).<\/p>\n<p>Finally,\u200c since the Supreme \u2062Court overruled <em>Roe v. Wade<\/em> last \u200byear,\u2062 <em>11 states<\/em> enacted (or re-enacted) laws prohibiting abortion. All but two of those\u200b laws (Indiana and West Virginia) were enacted after the midterm\u2063 elections and\u200d after the pro-life defeats on \u200bstate constitutional amendments \u2062in\u2064 California, Kansas, Kentucky,\u200b Michigan, and Vermont.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<h3>Looking Ahead<\/h3>\n<p>Given that we had a legal regime of abortion on demand for almost 50 \u200cyears, it should not surprise anyone that it will take time \u200cto persuade the public that abortion is a moral and social evil that must be addressed by appropriate\u200c legislation. \u2062But with half of the \u2062states already providing at least some measure of protection (and\u200d 18 of those 25 state laws prohibit abortion throughout pregnancy), pro-life advocates and conservatives\u200b have \u200bachieved a good start toward that goal.<\/p>\n<p>In light of these accomplishments since\u200b <em>Dobbs<\/em>, conservatives \u200bshould not be reluctant to \u2064debate the\u2064 issue or defend extending legal protection to the most defenseless of\u2062 us all: unborn children.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\">\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sen. McConnell and GOP senators were privately briefed on a recent study advising them to avoid &#8220;pro-life&#8221; language, which may isolate voters post-Dobbs. The report aimed to counter the pro-life movement&#8217;s recent electoral setbacks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2401,"featured_media":2027618,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2027617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2027617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2401"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2027617"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2027617\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2027618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2027617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2027617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2027617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}