As the nation commemorates the 48th anniversary of Roe v. Wade (the Supreme Court decision legalizing elective abortion nationwide in 1973), pro-life and pro-family Americans can take heart that their voices are still being heard in state capitals across the country. The "wave" election of pro-life Republicans in 2009 inaugurated a new era in pro-life state laws: More pro-life state laws have been enacted in the 11 years since that "wave" first took office in 2010 than in the previous 37 years since Roe.
And that momentum continues to build, even as pro-abortion Democrats in Washington, D.C., prepare to implement radical policies out of step with American's views on abortion. Consider the following highlights as we approach the end of January 2021:
- Of the 44 states that have convened so far in 2021, 23 have already introduced 54 pro-life state bills so far this year, and another 21 bills (including five in Oklahoma and 1 in Florida, neither of which are in session yet) carried over from last year.
- Four states -- Arkansas, Mississippi, Missouri, and Texas -- have introduced bills to ban abortion, in defiance of Roe v. Wade. But it's not enough to be defiant, so our team has worked on model legislation which will help additional states signal to the Supreme Court that its abortion jurisprudence is untenable, and this great injustice must be reversed. (State legislators are invited to be in touch with us.)
- Three states -- Kentucky, Missouri, and Oregon -- have introduced bills to defund abortion providers like Planned Parenthood. FRC has developed model legislation to defund abortion providers in state appropriations, in Medicaid, and/or in Title X.
- Eleven states have introduced laws protecting or increasing protections for infants born alive during an abortion (Arizona, Hawaii, Indiana, Kentucky, Minnesota, Montana, New Hampshire, Oregon, South Dakota, Wisconsin, and Wyoming), and another 2 states (New Jersey and Virginia) have carried their bills over from last year. Last year, pro-life Republicans in the U.S. House of representatives requested unanimous consent a record number of 80 times to bring a national Born-Alive Infant Protection Act To the floor of the House; they picked up seats in November's election, and are planning to bring a discharge petition again this year.
And the 2021 state legislative sessions are just getting started. Just this past week, the Kansas House took steps to make that state the latest to ensure that "abortion rights" can't be read into the state constitution by an activists State Supreme Court.
If your state isn't on one of these lists and you think it should be, please reach out to your elected officials and ask them to be in touch. We would love to work with them.
