Roe v. Wade is gone. For that, we are thankful – and at this year’s March for Life in Washington, D.C., we will celebrate that fact. The Supreme Court did what it should have done decades ago and returned abortion policy to the people and their elected representatives. But make no mistake: The end of Roe did not end the abortion fight. It detonated the radical pro-abortion Left into full panic mode.
Across the country, abortion extremists are seething – and they are doing everything in their power to force every state to embrace abortion on demand, without limits, without accountability, and without regard for human life. In order for the pro-life movement to be successful, we must wrap our heads around this reality and adjust our strategy accordingly.
This is the new battlefield.
With no federal guardrails in place, radical states aren’t just expanding abortion – they’re tearing down long-standing legal protections that once applied even after a child was born alive. Lawmakers hide these changes behind deceptive language and push them through with little public scrutiny. But the result is clear: Innocent lives are left unprotected. Nowhere is this dangerous shift more evident than in Minnesota and California.
Take action with us. Add your name to the petition: End Infanticide – Protect Babies Born Alive.
For decades, Minnesota law recognized a simple, self-evident truth: A child born alive is a human being entitled to the same legal protections as any other person. The law explicitly required that reasonable medical measures be taken to preserve the life and health of an infant who survived an abortion. It treated birth as a legal and moral line – one that demanded action, accountability, and care aimed at preserving life.
Those protections were gutted.
In 2023, Minnesota lawmakers passed – and Governor Tim Walz signed – legislation that repealed the requirement that medical professionals take reasonable steps to preserve the life of a born-alive infant. Minnesota’s prior law required medically appropriate, lifesaving care for infants born alive after abortion attempts. The new law removed that provision and requires only that an infant be “cared for” – a clear downgrade in legal obligation.
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During legislative debate, the bill’s own author, state Rep. Tina Liebling, confirmed what that change was intended to accomplish: The new standard was meant to require “comfort care,” not lifesaving treatment. That distinction matters. Comfort care may temporarily ease suffering, but it does nothing to preserve life.
This is something that became very clear as the former Governor of Virginia, a pediatric doctor, explained that a baby would be kept “comfortable” on the table and “a discussion would ensue” as to whether the child should live or be left to die.
Now, viable babies – fully born, alive, and capable of surviving with medical intervention – may be set aside, kept comfortable, and allowed to die.
Meanwhile, in California, the ACLJ sounded the alarm as Assembly Bill 2223 advanced through the legislature and was signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom. The bill contained language that would restrict investigations and reporting of certain infant deaths, including those of children in the perinatal period who survived attempted abortion procedures – potentially shielding individuals, including providers, from civil or criminal liability for those deaths. The ACLJ actively opposed the bill at every stage, providing legal analysis to members of both chambers and urging the governor not to sign legislation that would undermine protections for newborns.
As we gather in Washington, D.C., we march for the unborn – but we also march for children who survive abortion and are denied the care they need to live. This is precisely why the March for Life matters now more than ever, and that is why the ACLJ is proud to be a coalition partner with the March for Life.
The march is not about looking backward at Roe v. Wade or celebrating past wins. It is a response to the reality we face right now: The fight for life has shifted into statehouses, where lawmakers are quietly rewriting the law to strip value from human life. What’s happening in Minnesota and California isn’t an exception – it’s a warning of what follows when radical pro-abortion ideology overrides the law’s most basic duty: protecting the innocent.
And when the march ends, the ACLJ will continue the fight for life – in the courts, in the legislatures, and wherever innocent life needs defending. Take action with us as we continue the fight. Add your name to the petition: End Infanticide – Protect Babies Born Alive.
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