Resilience of the Pro-life Movement: Post Roe v. Wade

After the ruling of Roe v. Wade, Pro-life supporters were faced with a decision; to keep fighting for fetal rights, or to succumb to the secularization movement that had been building for the past fifty years in America. Even under great scrutiny, the pro - life movement continued to fight using the Human life amendment, political action committees, and working tirelessly to elect pro-life supporters to government positions.
The National Right to Life organization was originally made up of small, pro-life groups scattered throughout the nation. The organization was supported mainly by the Catholic institution but began to see leaders rise up from the protestant denomination and therefore gained more followers. Wherever abortion was being debated, members of the Right to Life Organization were present, fighting tirelessly for the unborn. They slowly gained support and were beginning to see changes in American views toward abortion. The organization wanted not only for abortion to be illegal, but for the courts to recognize that life began at conception. Undoubtedly, the Right to Life organization was not satisfied with the Supreme Court ruling that abortion was a

fundamental right for mothers. They had made generous strides in state legislatures throughout the U.S to ban abortion, but the Roe v. Wade court decision immediately halted their hard work. Many activist saw the court’s acceptance of terminating pregnancy synonymous to Hitler’s genocide and as unnecessary as the Vietnam War (205). Unable to be discouraged by even the supreme Law of the Land, they turned their attention to new territory: the Human Life Amendment.
The Human Life Amendment was a constitutional amendment to validate that life, and therefore rights endowed by the constitution, began at conception.

If passed, Pro-lifers believed that this amendment would put a total end to abortion and give rights to the life of the child beginning at conception (212). Pro - lifers also hoped this amendment would slow the idea of euthanasia of aged and sick and validate that “life is the gift of God and not of the State” (213). The NRLC, and other pro-lifers, worked vigorously to obtain support for their amendment. A major way of acquiring tangible support to take before Congress was through the Committee of Ten Million. The original goal was to have Ten million letters of support from Catholic priests and other pro-life activist supporting the Human Life

Amendment.
A year and a half after the ruling of Roe v. Wade the NRLC had the ten million letters they needed to present to State Legislatures (213). Even after receiving support from several State Legislatures, Pro - lifers had an arduous time convincing law makers to make this amendment priority. The Watergate Scandal was front and center of every newspaper and Abortion rights was a touchy subject, especially with an election season on the horizon. Pro - life activist knew that having members of congress who supported the HLA was crucial if they were going to make any stride in the right to life fight. Pro-life leaders looked past party affiliation and sought out congress members who supported the HLA. From there, they endorsed these candidates regardless of their stance on other issues, and encouraged pro-life supporters to do the same. Essentially, pro-life supporters were trying to “stack the team” so to speak, to make Abortion rights the ultimate priority for congress. With the growing feminist movement, Democratic pro-lifers began to recant their support for the HLA in order to save their political career. In the fall of 1975, Senate Democrats helped kill the HLA along with six other anti-abortion amendments.
The HLA continued to lose support even from the Republicans who were known to be pro-life supporters. That is until 1976. Ronald Reagan was on the ballot for the Republican Presidential nomination against Gerald Ford, who was not overly enthusiastic about abortion rights. Pro - lifers knew the Reagan’s history and his transformation from signing abortion liberalization as the governor of California to claiming support for concepts of the HRL (231). When Reagan won the election, the NRLC jumped right back into the hunt to find HRL supporting congressmen to assist in the momentum of the HRL that President Reagan had established. They raised money for these candidates by creating PAC’s or political action committees.
The National Pro-Life PAC was the first committee to become established (233). Shortly after the Life Amendment Political Action Committee (LAPAC) began as well. Both PAC’s worked to elect several conservative Republicans to both the House and the Senate (234). At one NRLC convention the Hyde Amendment was proposed. This amendment enacted restrictions on federal funding for abortions. With the help of the PAC’s and the Hyde Amendment, anti - abortion legislation was able to gain some much needed success. By 1978, only 16 states provided federal funding for abortions (235). This was monumental for the pro-life cause because it meant that women seeking abortion either had to pay for the procedure themselves, or carry their child to term. These restrictions also secured a bond between the pro-life movement and the GOP (235). Members of congress were more apt to get on board with funding restrictions than terminating abortion all together.
As the 1970’s came to a close, new moral issues arose in the United states. Feminism, gay rights, and communism were just a few of the issues that were constantly in the headlines. New groups such as the Moral Majority began to pop up across the nation taking a stance against these new moral issues as well as sexual licentiousness.
As the pro-life movement in general shifted more to sexual issues, the NRLC decided not to adopt the large agenda; but instead remained dedicated to the right to life (238). They continued to support President Reagan as he was up for re-election because his overwhelming support for pro-life. Activist believed it was imperative to keep the GOP entirely committed to the HLA, they looked for support from Republicans to take a stance on the party platform. The Democratic party adopted a platform supporting the decision in Roe v. Wade. Reagan, and his running mate George Bush, pledged support for the entire Republican platform, including its call for a constitutional amendment, to protect the unborn (242). Subsequently, this divided the Democrats and Republicans on pro-life/pro-choice, a trend we still see today.
Throughout the next thirty years Republicans and Democrats went head to head on the issue of abortion. The pro- life movement began to link its cause to a conservative sexual ideology but kept abortion as its main concern. They fought to gain supreme court justices who were in favor of reversing Roe v. Wade. Reagan and Bush were able to nominate several conservative justices therefore the NRLC was optimistic (245). Their optimism was quickly diminished as the ruling in Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992) reaffirmed the decision in Roe v. Wade.
Today, the pro-life movement continues to fight within the Republican party. Other issues such as opposition to pornography or gay rights have since come and gone. The pro-life movement has continued to remain as the moral issue that attracts the younger generation of the Republican party (267). Needless to say, the pro- life movement is resilient; it has stood the test of time even under great trials, and will continue to do so for years to come.