Pro-choice activists thought the pro-life movement would still be staggering backwards after taking a devastating blow in the Supreme Court’s ruling in Whole Women’s Health v. Hellerstedt. The surprise election of Donald Trump, however, has swung the door wide open for the pro-life movement.
Trump reiterated his promise to appoint pro-life judges, and he made it clear that he understands overturning Roe would simply return the issue of abortion to the states. One of his first moves post-election was to put forward Rep. Tom Price as Secretary of Health and Human Services. A Secretary Price would stand poised to undo the mandate that requires nuns and other objecting religious parties to provide abortifacients in their healthcare plans, eliminate the previous administration’s rule overturning state action to defund Planned Parenthood, and halt the California law requiring all employers regardless of religious objection to cover abortion in their healthcare plans.
The American appetite for more pro-life protections, not less, has been on clear display at the state level in the handful of weeks since the election. And if you put your ear to the ground, you will hear the steady march of half a million members of the self-labeled pro-life generation heading towards Washington, D.C. for the annual March for Life in just a few weeks.
