Thousands of anti-abortion protesters took part in the March for Life, the largest annual demonstration in the United States against abortion, this Friday on the National Mall, the national park in front of the Capitol in Washington. The mood was exuberant. It was the first edition of the march since the Supreme Court ruled in Roe v. Wade, which protected abortion rights nationwide for half a century. The measure has devastated the reproductive health landscape in the country. But spurred on by her triumph, activists in the anti-abortion camp have vowed not to settle for her.
“The struggle has only just begun,” said Wilhelmina Swaub, a 23-year-old student who recently traveled from her Catholic university to take part in the demonstration. “It’s not going to end until this culture of death goes away and people don’t believe that abortion is the solution to anything.”
From the podium and giant screens from which organizers addressed the protesters, the president of the march, Jeanne Mancini, repeated the same idea. “We have won our most significant victory yet, but the human rights abuses of abortion are far from over… We will continue until these abuses are a thing of the past and unimaginable,” he said.
Whole families, many young people – like Wilhelmina, many had traveled with their classmates from Christian study centers – and occasionally priests in traditional cassocks were among the listeners who applauded him enthusiastically. The banners they waved read messages like “Pro-life: the radical idea that babies are human” or “I demand protection from conception”. Posters kept proclaiming among the youth, “I am the post-Roe generation.”
The March for Life was first held in 1974, a year after the Roe v. Wade had guaranteed the protection of abortion rights throughout the United States based on the constitutional right to privacy. Since then, anti-abortion activists have promised to do everything in their power to get that sentence overturned.
They got it on June 30 last year. On that day, the Supreme Court declared that judgment wrong in an opinion supported by six judges and represented by three opposing opinions. From then on it was up to each state to decide whether or not to allow abortion and under what circumstances.
Once that goal is achieved, the new edition of the march attempts to build consensus on what the next steps are. Something that appears explicitly in his motto this year: “The Next Steps: Marching to Roe in the United States.” Although anti-abortion activists agree to continue their pressure, opinions differ as to what the specific goals should be to fight for.
Some, like student Carla Martínez, who took part in this march for the first time, believe that the movement should now focus on “getting every state to legislate against voluntary abortion”. Others advocate a federal ban.
Abortion protections in some states
Both goals seem unlikely in the current situation. Since the Supreme Court ruling, a dozen Republican-controlled states have introduced abortion bans, and several more plan to impose abortion bans. But others — like California, Michigan, Kansas and South Carolina — have responded by passing measures to protect legal access to voluntary abortion.
A federal measure is unthinkable one way or the other. President Joe Biden and Democrats have vowed to defend abortion rights. And even if the new Republican majority in the House of Representatives were to introduce anti-abortion legislation, these measures would have no chance of success: the Democrats have a majority in the Senate.
Biden, who promised legislation to protect abortion rights nationwide if Democrats won control of both houses of Congress in November’s midterm elections, has responded with a proclamation that will mark Jan. 22, this Sunday, as the 50th anniversary marked by Roe vs. Wade. “Never before has the Supreme Court stripped away such a fundamental right from all Americans,” he explains. “By doing so, you are risking the health and lives of women across the country.”