Alongside the decisive victory of President-elect Donald Trump in the presidential race, there were glimmers of hope for the future of the pro-life movement, which has been crushed at the ballot box since the overturn of Roe v. Wade two years ago.
Trump will no doubt govern from a more pro-life posture than his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris would have done, but he infuriated some leaders and organizations in the pro-life movement with comments he made on the campaign trail in which he sought to downplay abortion as an issue and pledged to veto a national abortion ban.
But no matter what position on abortion Trump espoused on the campaign trail, his victory is a victory for the pro-life movement. And it came at a time when the pro-life movement had few victories to speak of. Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade two years ago, the pro-life position had lost every single abortion ballot referendum, even in the most Republican states.
That all changed on Tuesday. For the first time since the fall of Roe, voters rejected expansions to abortion in three states while passing such expansions in several others.
The biggest and most consequential victory for the pro-life movement was in Florida, where an abortion amendment failed to garner the necessary 60% support to be added to the state constitution. The results mean that a statewide ban on abortion after six weeks will remain in place in one of the most populous states in the country.
Similarly, voters in South Dakota overwhelmingly rejected an amendment to legalize abortion throughout the first trimester. This decisive victory is the only time that a majority of voters in a state have stood by a state ban on abortion. In Nebraska, voters showed their nuanced positions on abortion legality. There, a referendum to legalize abortion through viability was narrowly defeated, while a referendum to allow abortion only during the first trimester passed.
The results were not so rosy elsewhere. Referendums to legalize abortion passed in three states that Trump won or is expected to win: Arizona, Missouri, and Nevada. Abortion-friendly referenda also passed in several deep-blue states where abortion was already legal.
Still, for the pro-life movement, Tuesday was the first glimmer of positivity in the court of public opinion since the fall of Roe. The incoming Trump administration, accompanied by a Republican-controlled Congress, also provides an enormous opportunity, backed by a popular mandate, to stop government programs that have eased abortion access nationwide.
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Whether they accomplish it or not is another story, but Republicans now have the ability to fully defund Planned Parenthood and end the Pentagon’s policy of facilitating abortions for members of the military. Trump will also likely appoint at least one or two more justices to the Supreme Court, ensuring that any attempt to restore Roe v. Wade through a court ruling will be met with futility.
The pro-life movement has a long way to go to achieve the end of abortion everywhere. It has suffered several setbacks in the two years since its biggest triumph. But Tuesday’s results delivered some important victories and showed that the pro-life movement still has a future.
This article was originally published at www.washingtonexaminer.com
