The News
The anti-abortion movement didn’t win everything last week, but it didn’t lose — that was enough to encourage activists that it was on the right track for future gains. For the first time since the Dobbs decision, voters rejected several abortion rights ballot measures. (A majority of Floridians voted for an abortion amendment, but it fell shy of the 60% passage requirement.) States holding their first elections since total abortion bans were enacted didn’t shift to the left. And Donald Trump’s strategic non-answers about abortion, including distancing himself from conservative plans to use existing law to limit it, didn’t hurt him at all.
Marjorie Dannenfelser, the founder of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, had wanted more from Trump. Her group had urged Republicans to support a specific 15-week federal abortion ban, at a minimum; Trump never did. But he won, and will take office as the first Republican president in a post-Roe world. She talked about that with Americana, and this is an edited transcript of the conversation.
The View From Marjorie Dannenfelser
Americana: What’s it mean that Republicans won the first post-Roe election, that “Roevember” didn’t happen?
Marjorie Dannenfelser: It means a couple of things. One, it doesn’t matter how much money you put behind untruths, $570 million on their side and $37 million on ours. It is not popular to have no limits, without any compromise. Two, the post-Dobbs backlash has ceased or abated, and there’s actual discernment going on. The scare tactics were not successful. That clears the path for actual conversation about where a nation wants to land, and where states want to land on this.
There was no real difference in the way Republicans handled it this year, compared to two years ago, except for the fact that Trump said it should go back to the states. But all the predictions that we would lose every single ballot initiative were wrong. When governors actually take on and own the issues, own the law, that makes all the difference. In the states where governors said nothing, we lost. In Florida, where DeSantis led the campaign, we won. And that stoppage of the hemorrhaging was really important.
The measures that won often prevailed while Democrats lost. One spin I heard on this: Voters could choose abortion rights and reject Democrats, so in the end, this helped Republicans. Do you agree with that?
Part of that did reveal the ability to highly finance untruths. These campaigns convinced people that there was a possibility that Republicans were going to allow women to bleed out on the table because they had a miscarriage or ectopic pregnancy complications [Democrats cited investigations by outlets like ProPublica into women who died after doctors reportedly hesitated to provide care]. If you’re on the margins, you’re going to vote against that. Outside of Nebraska, South Dakota, and Florida, there really was no sincere effort to put those lies down. But with a candidate — voters can get to know them. They have a hard time believing that that guy really wants to allow a woman to bleed out on the table.
Whenever I saw a House or Senate debate, and this came up, I typically heard the Republican candidate say that his or her opponent wanted abortion with no exceptions. It was very consistent. How much of a role did SBA Pro-Life America play in that?
In every single battleground campaign, president to Senate to House, that was the advice we gave. We worked very closely with Kellyanne Conway on this advice: Contrast your opponent’s position with your reasonable position, whether it’s 15 weeks or 12 weeks. Always connect the woman and child — they can’t be discussed separately. How are you going to address the needs of women who are making a tough decision in the middle of the night? I think JD Vance always did this well. Our advice was to state your reasonable position, contrast it with unlimited, uncompromising abortion, and then reveal your heart by talking about your own compassion. Passionate solutions to women facing unplanned pregnancies in a personal story.
You had challenged Republicans, during the primary, to pledge to a 15-week abortion limit. Donald Trump refused to do it. In the end, was that the right strategy for him?
In the short term, it was a way to distract and put the question off. In the long term, it can’t stand. So yes, that was a disappointment. Of course, we wanted him to do it. There should be a national view on this that puts this in line with civilized societies across the world. But the conversation is not over. I think there are many more potential future candidates who’ll think that we ought to be in line with other civilized societies.
What’s the federal goal for the movement now?
The most urgent thing is to take Trump I pro-life policies and make them Trump II policies. That’s domestic and international abortion funding, and not funding organizations that advocate for abortion abroad. It’s Title X and conscious protections. And we’re going to be very involved in advocating for people that we think are gonna be good in the administration on these issues.
Do you see RFK Jr as an impediment to any of this? During the campaign, when the idea of him joining an administration came up, the movement said they needed a pro-life HHS Secretary enforcing these decisions.
There’s no question that we need a pro-life HHS secretary, and of course, we have concerns about him. It’s all new, and so I don’t have a lot more to say about that right now. But it’s the most important position, and he’s made it pretty clear where he stands. I know what the president’s positions are, and what the positions are of the people around him in the White House. And so my assumption, and my hope, is that he will be the employee of the President.
What are the other federal priorities?
We have to deconstruct Biden’s pro-abortion policies. The inter-departmental pro-abortion shelter has got to go. We would want to replace it with a pro-life shelter, where we can fund programs that help women in the diverse circumstances where they are more prone to seek out abortions. We need to be actively serving through programs that already exist, with transportation, with addiction, with housing. These are the top issues that women are dealing with. The solution is not abortion.