Antiabortion leaders weigh enforcing bans, civil cases, criminally charging
“I believe that for the rest of your life, you’re going to remember exactly where you were and what you were doing when you heard the news on Friday, June 24,” David Bereit, the former CEO of 40 Days for Life, told the audience. “But — this is an important but — we have to recognize that this is not the end.”
Since these early moments of jubilation over the demise of the 1973 landmark Roe v. Wade decision, however, differences have emerged among advocates over the best way to build on the victory they secured at the Supreme Court as Republican-led states determine how and how far they will go to limit access to abortion, according to interviews with nearly 20 antiabortion leaders and other people involved in the movement.
“There’s always been a 50-year debate over what’s the best way to bring down Roe v. Wade,” said Clarke Forsythe, the senior counsel for Americans United for Life, an antiabortion law firm and advocacy group. “And now there’s a big debate, and everybody’s involved, about what’s the best road forward — or what are the best roads forward — after Dobbs,” he said referring to Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the case that overturned Roe.
How the groups and their allies in state legislatures decide to move forward will play a key role in shaping a post-Roe landscape in the United States.
Among the areas of disagreement are whether to try to prevent women in antiabortion states from being able to obtain the procedure or abortion pills across state lines, as well as whether to promote bans that include exceptions for rape and incest. There is also tension over whether the best way to enforce a ban is by letting private citizens bring civil cases like in Texas.
A narrow slice of activists take a more extreme stance of imposing criminal penalties on patients who get abortions — but such a position is at odds with the more mainstream antiabortion movement which contends the woman should not be punished.
The looming battles will be waged in state legislatures, as antiabortion groups work with local leaders on passing ambitious plans to ban abortion. Major groups have their own model legislation — or are planning to soon unveil language — that state lawmakers can introduce when legislative sessions resume in a race to influence what a new post-Roe America will look like.
Leading antiabortion advocates downplayed the divisions among…
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