Anti-abortion activists will have multiple reasons to celebrate \u2014 and some reasons for unease \u2014 when they gather Friday in Washington for the annual March for Life.
\nThe march, which includes a rally drawing abortion opponents from across the nation, has been held annually since January 1974 \u2014 a year after the U.S. Supreme Court\u2019s Roe v. Wade decision established a nationwide right to\u00a0abortion.
\nThis year\u2019s gathering \u2014 50 years after that decision \u2014 will be the first since the\u00a0high court struck down Roe\u00a0in a momentous ruling last June.
\nSince then, 12 Republican-governed states have implemented sweeping bans on abortion, and several others seek to do the same. But those moves have been offset by other developments. Abortion opponents were defeated in votes on ballot measures in Kansas, Michigan and Kentucky. State courts have blocked several bans from taking effect. And myriad\u00a0efforts are underway to help women\u00a0in abortion-ban states either get abortions out of state or use the abortion pill for self-managed abortions.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s almost like the old wild, wild West \u2026 everything is still shaking out,\u201d said Carol Tobias, president of the National Right to Life Committee.
\nWith numerous Democratic-governed states taking steps to protect and expand abortion access, Tobias likened the current situation to the pre-Civil War era when the nation was closely divided between free states and slave states.
\n\u201cI will not be surprised if we have something like that for a few years,\u201d she said. \u201cBut I do know that pro-lifers are not going to give up \u2014 it\u2019s a civil rights issue for us.\u201d
\nThe theme for this year\u2019s March for Life is \u201cNext Steps: Marching Forward into a Post-Roe America.\u201d Scheduled speakers include Hall of Fame football coach Tony Dungy and Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch, who won the Supreme Court case that overturned Roe.
\nThe president of March for Life, Jeanne Mancini, depicted the June ruling as \u201ca massive victory for the pro-life movement.\u201d
\n\u201cBut the battle to build a culture of life is far from over,\u201d she said. \u201cMarch for Life will continue to advocate for the unborn and policies that protect them until abortion becomes unthinkable.\u201d
\nProspects for any federal legislation restricting abortion nationwide are negligible for now, given that any such measures emerging from the Republican-led House would face rejection in the Democratic-led Senate. The main battlegrounds will be in the states.
\nSince June, near-total bans on abortion have been implemented in Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas and West Virginia.\u00a0Legal challenges are pending\u00a0against several of those bans.
\nElective abortions also are unavailable in Wisconsin, due to legal uncertainties faced by abortion clinics, and in North Dakota, where the lone clinic relocated to Minnesota.
\nBans passed by lawmakers in Ohio, Indiana and Wyoming have been blocked by state courts while legal challenges are pending. And in South Carolina, the\u00a0state Supreme Court on Jan. 5 struck down a ban\u00a0on abortion after six weeks, ruling the restriction violates a state constitutional right to privacy.
\nThe Guttmacher Institute, a research group which supports abortion rights, says the overall result is \u201ca chaotic legal landscape that is disruptive for providers trying to offer care and patients trying to obtain it.\u201d
\n\u201cWhen people do not have access to abortion care in their state, they are forced to make the difficult decision to travel long distances for care, self-manage an abortion or carry an unwanted pregnancy to term,\u201d Guttmacher staffers Elizabeth Nash and Isabel Guarnieri wrote last week.<\/p>\n