Abortion opponents continue to fight
2023.01.20 12:46
Abortion opponents continue to fight
By Ray Johnson
Budrigannews.com – For the 50th anniversary of the “March for Life,” thousands of abortion opponents plan to gather in Washington on Friday. This will be a new chapter in the history of a movement that has been working for decades to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark decision that recognized a woman’s right to an abortion.
The leaders of March For Life hope to inspire support for state and federal legislation that further restricts abortion now that that objective has been accomplished following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in June to overturn Roe v. Wade and eliminate federal abortion rights.
According to March for Life President Jeanne Mancini, “It’s a moment to stop and to reflect upon all that’s happened in the course of the last 50 years leading up to this year, as well as to think about what are the next steps.” We have a lot of work to do.”
According to the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive rights research and advocacy organization, 12 states have enforced total abortion bans with limited exceptions since the repeal of Roe on June 24, 2022. Additionally, abortion is not available in two additional states.
The first official state “March for Life” was held in Virginia in 2019, and March for Life plans to rapidly expand its initiative to promote marches in various states. Mancini hopes that the organization will hold ten state marches in 2023, including ones in Arizona, Virginia, California, and Connecticut. Within the next ten years, they will hope to reach all 50 states.
She stated that Michigan, one of the states in which the anti-abortion movement has recently suffered defeat, is one of the states in which Mancini would like to see the march movement expand next. In November of last year, Michigan voters approved a state constitutional amendment to guarantee abortion rights.
The national march of this year will be held two days before January 22, which would have marked the 50th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision.
In honor of the occasion, advocates for abortion rights called for additional state and national legislation to safeguard abortion rights and reflected on the significant disruptions to reproductive healthcare in the United States over the past year.
The Guttmacher Institute’s president, Herminia Palacio, stated, “On what would have been the 50th anniversary of Roe, we are instead facing the deepest crisis in abortion access in 50 years.”
Speakers at Friday’s “March for Life” will include U.S. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise and Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch, who won the case Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which prompted the Supreme Court to overturn Roe. The “March for Life” will begin at noon on the National Mall.
After that, attendees of the rally will march along a slightly different route than usual as a nod to their victory at the Supreme Court. Instead of proceeding directly to the high court, as they had previously done to argue for Roe’s overturn, they will pass in front of the Capitol.
