When a major social conservative conference took place in Iowa earlier this month, one key point of discussion was the future of the pro-life movement under the conditions of Dobbs.
Members of the Supreme Court made the landmark decision to overturn Roe only three years ago, and yet the mainstream pro-life movement has failed to seriously show how they will completely abolish abortion in America. In the meantime, they have not only presided over a number of failed ballot initiative campaigns enshrining abortion into the constitutions of several conservative states, but have also witnessed a dramatic increase in abortion levels nationwide.
The attendees of the Family Leadership Summit in Des Moines, described by The Family Leader as the “largest gathering of Christians dedicated to cultural transformation” in the Midwest, heard discussion of why apparent momentum on the abortion issue has stalled.
Steve Deace, a conservative evangelical talk show host with Blaze Media, delivered an address about that loss of momentum, calling for the creation of a positive vision for ending abortion.
While he confessed that he was not entirely decided about the emergent debate between the pro-life and abolitionist positions, Deace said that pro-life establishment groups should never oppose bills seeking to totally abolish abortion, a trend which has occurred for the last decade.
Marjorie Dannenfelser, the president of the longtime pro-life organization Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, delivered an address of her own after his speech to handle similar issues.
Dannenfelser once more celebrated the overturn of Roe while admitting the dismal state of the abortion battle. In one portion of her speech, she acknowledged a “sobering statistic” observed by the Charlotte Lozier Institute, the research arm of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, which revealed in a recent report that there are now over 1.1 million annual abortions in our nation.
She claimed that the reason for the problem of elevated abortions, which are easily exceeding abortion levels before the overturn of Roe, has been the abortion activists who “do not respect the law” of conservative states and are “working tirelessly” to undermine the pro-life movement.
In a recent speech, @MarjorieSBA blamed the nationwide rise in abortions on Democrats and abortion activists, without noting how Pro-Life regulations in Republican states keep self-induced abortion legal after Dobbs.
The exact same paper from the @LozierInstitute, the research… https://t.co/9prKMXNrV2 pic.twitter.com/S4TCsdYLwo
— Foundation to Abolish Abortion (@AbolitionistFAA) July 17, 2025
The assertion from Dannenfelser that pro-abortion entities are largely responsible for rising levels of abortion misses the reality of loopholes in pro-life laws that allow abortion to continue in consrvative states, a reality mentioned in the same report from the Charlotte Lozier Institute.
The document concluded that pro-abortion states have “circumvented the inability of women in pro-life states to obtain brick-and-mortar abortions.” The report also warned that pro-life regulations currently in effect do not ban the efforts of “women to obtain abortion drugs from abortionists in other states or travel to other states to obtain an abortion.” That phenomenon has allowed for abortion levels to increase even in states where purported abortion bans are law.
Charlotte Lozier Institute researchers noticed that “the media and many government officials want to have the public believe that no abortions are occurring within state lines,” even as abortion remains “widely sought after and available for women” in conservative states.
Dannenfelser alluded to equal protection for preborn babies, a position held by abolitionists saying that existing murder, assault, and wrongful death laws should simply protect preborn people in the same way as people who have already been born, several times in her speech.
She even concluded her remarks with a charge for conservative Iowa voters to lead the way in the next election cycle with choosing a Republican presidential nominee who will champion “equal protection of all children” across the country under the Fourteenth Amendment.
In a recent speech, @marjoriesba alluded several times to equal protection for preborn babies.
She even called for a Republican presidential nominee in the next election cycle who would endorse equal protection of the laws for preborn babies under the Fourteenth Amendment.
The… https://t.co/cuzYQdXz5W pic.twitter.com/8lIF4WXIMv
— Foundation to Abolish Abortion (@AbolitionistFAA) July 16, 2025
In spite of her signaling toward equal protection, Dannenfelser and her staff at Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America have spent years opposing such a position, namely by backing the exact loopholes keeping abortion legal for women noted by the Charlotte Lozier Institute.
The research organization has an entire website making clear that “pro-life laws exempt women from prosecution” in more than two dozen conservative states, approving of those statutes by declaring that they were enacted into law “in accordance with the mainstream pro-life movement,” which has “consistently sought to exempt women from prosecution for abortion.”
The website links to an “open letter to state lawmakers” endorsed three years ago by dozens of state and national pro-life establishment organizations that oppose “any measure seeking to criminalize or punish women” for willfully having abortions. The signature from Dannenfelser was prominently featured in the letter, which pro-life lobbyists have since leveraged to kill equal protection efforts in states such as Louisiana, Kentucky, Missouri, and North Dakota.
As of last year, Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America stood by their decision to sign the letter against equal protection and criminal penalties for women who willfully murder their preborn babies, with a spokesperson saying they “continue to adhere to the position” in the document.
The overturn of Roe has removed any excuse that Republican lawmakers and pro-life establishment groups once had to avoid ending abortion, especially in conservative states where Republicans have substantial political power. Christian and conservative voters were told for decades that Roe was the primary obstacle standing in the way of ending abortion, and yet more than three years after Dobbs, pro-life organizations have been hesitant to work toward ending abortion. Many of them have even opposed sincere efforts to accomplish that objective.
In order to truly abolish abortion, we must make murdering anyone illegal for everyone. If there are massive loopholes in our laws explicitly allowing mothers immunity to murder their own preborn children under cover of law, then we cannot actually end abortion in our nation.
Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America professes to believe that human life starts at conception and that preborn babies should receive protection of the laws from that moment forward, and yet their legislative advocacy efforts in recent years have nevertheless subverted that stance.
In the aftermath of Dobbs and following the overturn of Roe, every single organization claiming to oppose abortion must now prove their commitment not only in word, but also in deed. Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America and other longtime pro-life establishment groups are no exception.
The views expressed in this opinion article are those of their author and are not necessarily either shared or endorsed by the owners of this website. If you are interested in contributing an Op-Ed to The Western Journal, you can learn about our submission guidelines and process here.
Advertise with The Western Journal and reach millions of highly engaged readers, while supporting our work. Advertise Today.
