Three years ago, the Supreme Court delivered a landmark win for human rights in the Dobbs case, restoring the right to protect children in the womb to the people and their elected representatives. The result of decades of tireless advocacy, Dobbs ended half a century of nationwide abortion on demand imposed by the high court in Roe v. Wade.
To many Americans, and even some in the pro-life movement, this seemed like the decisive victory – the end goal – and it was time to lay down arms, so to speak.
In reality, as the statesman Churchill described a turning point in the great battle of his day, it was only “the end of the beginning.”
Some have been shocked and confused to learn abortions are up nationally after Dobbs (although still less than their peak 35-40 years ago). A Charlotte Lozier Institute analysis finds that, from July 2023 to June 2024 alone, abortion ended the lives of over 1.1 million babies – making it America’s top cause of death.
How so? We shouldn’t underestimate the ruthless Big Abortion lobby, led by Planned Parenthood, desperate to hold onto power and profits. These are people who casually discussed selling aborted baby body parts over lunch. Of course they had contingency plans.
The result is a tale of two very different Americas: one, where all or most babies in the womb are protected in law. The other, where they have few if any protections at all. And the latter are hard at work undermining the good progress of the former.
Abortion radicals in blue states prey on vulnerable women and girls, urging them to travel for abortions in a twisted form of tourism. While pro-life states seek to protect pregnant minors from being trafficked out of state, California Governor Gavin Newsom launched a multistate ad campaign targeting teenagers, promoting abortions paid for with state campaign funds.
Many brick-and-mortar abortion facilities have shuttered, yet the abortion industry adapted by pushing mail-order abortion drugs into mailboxes all over America. Under so-called “shield laws,” blue states try to grant abortionists immunity for breaking laws of other states, even when they cause people very real harm – even women who weren’t seeking abortions. Virtually anyone can obtain high-risk drugs without ever seeing a doctor face-to-face, while Big Abortion blithely claims they’re “safer than Tylenol” – a debunked, potentially deadly lie.
In states like Ohio, Big Abortion quickly mobilized to take down state-level pro-life protections, undoing years of democratic work with record-breaking political spending to defeat pro-life leaders and rewrite state constitutions. Once unlimited, all-trimester abortion is enshrined in a state’s constitution, health regulations, informed consent, parental rights and more soon come under attack.
Any pro-life strategy going forward must take these factors into account. We have to fight back. The good news is, our position is much better under the second Trump administration than if Kamala Harris and the Democrats – who are increasingly pro-abortion, no longer “pro-choice” – had taken control.
President Trump is acting on numerous pro-life priorities. One of the biggest steps Congress and the president can take is to get the One Big Beautiful Bill to the finish line to stop forced taxpayer funding of the abortion industry. Big Abortion is reeling from its latest scandal exposing botched abortions and appallingly bad “care” at facilities across the country, as well as Trump’s freeze on millions in Title X family planning funds (abortion isn’t family planning and we hope that will once again be extended to the integrity of the entire program). Even Chuck Schumer agrees defunding them of approximately half a billion dollars from their largest source of federal funds, Medicaid, is a blow from which they would not likely recover. Now is the time to seize the moment, before they have a chance to regroup and come back even bigger.
Additionally, it’s time to stop the flow of mail-order abortion drugs that harm women and girls, aid abusers, engender lawlessness in the states and undercut the historic Supreme Court victory Trump is so proud of. FDA Commissioner Makary’s pledge to conduct a fresh review of the data on abortion drug health and safety risks is encouraging. At the least, the administration can reinstate the critical safeguard of in-person dispensing and require adverse events to be fully reported again, reversing decades of bad policy under Obama and Biden. It’s not enough to only know when abortion drugs result in women dying; Americans deserve the full picture of their dangers, without which informed consent is impossible. The efforts of state attorneys general, like Ken Paxton in Texas, to hold abortionists accountable for the harm they cause by illegally shipping these drugs across state lines also deserve our support.
As the 2026 election cycle heats up, an abortion lobby that hasn’t learned from defeat in 2024 will go all in to take back the House and the Senate. The pro-life movement must hold the line and protect our pro-life House and Senate majorities. As a key poll shows pro-life sentiment has grown since Dobbs, especially among young adults, we shouldn’t be afraid to be bold and go on offense.
The Dobbs decision was undeniably a momentous, well-won victory for the pro-life movement. But we can’t rest when millions of lives are still threatened. Every child and mother deserves to survive and thrive, with all the gifts they have to offer and opportunities our great nation affords – and that’s why our work can’t stop.
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