The New Front for the Pro-Life Movement: How the Abortion Pill Changes Our Battle
As the dust settled in the aftermath of the June 24th, 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson ruling, the anti-life, pro-abortion movement quickly pivoted to a new strategy. With abortion bans triggered in several states across the US, anti-life activists positioned themselves to fight the next phase of the abortion battle: the abortion pill. Loosely regulated by a patchwork of state laws, FDA rules, and a noticeable absence of Congressional action, the abortion pill proved to be the perfect, untested ground to rapidly, insidiously spread abortion access post-Dobbs. Within days of Roe being overturned, information on where and how to get abortion pills flooded the internet and social media. And the deluge of information promoting medicated abortion was effective - in 2023 alone, 63% of abortions, or 642,700 cases, were caused by medication abortion [1]. This rapid increase in the use of medication abortion and the trend towards mothers favoring the abortion pill over a traditional abortion poses a challenge to the strategy of the pro-life movement, a challenge that necessitates two essential framework shifts for the pro-life movement.
First, the pro-life strategy must shift from the sidewalk to the smartphone. By the numbers, brick-and-mortar pregnancy clinics hold the advantage over Planned Parenthood clinics. Across all 50 states, there are over 2,700 pregnancy clinics protecting the lives of mothers and children [2]. Meanwhile, Planned Parenthood and anti-life activists have established only 585 facilities in 48 states [3]. By digital presence, however, one would assume that the amount of Planned Parenthoods greatly outnumber pregnancy clinics. Internet searches for terms such as “pregnancy,” “unwanted pregnancy,” and “pregnancy hotlines” reveal anti-life site after anti-life site. Planned Parenthood routinely appears in the top five options of all these searches. Even a search for a pro-life or “options” pregnancy line first pulls up a crisis hotline that offers referrals to abortion clinics. To find the correct pro-life resources or local pregnancy clinics, a woman needs to be intentionally searching with the right keywords or organization names.
Simply put, the pro-life movement has a digital advertisement problem. It’s understandable for a movement that has spent decades focusing on sidewalk counseling and an in-person approach to helping mothers and unborn children. But in a world where anti-life activists have shifted to a digital approach, rapidly cycling updates about the abortion pill, access to abortion, and the latest abortion laws, the typical pro-life strategies of in-person advocacy, sidewalk counseling, and physical advertisements for in-person pregnancy clinics fall short. The solution? An increased digital presence through the use of social media, websites, and crisis hotlines. These digital measures ensure that when an expecting mother in crisis turns to the internet for a solution she is met with her local pregnancy clinic and immediate pro-life support, not directions to the nearest Planned Parenthood or instructions for the abortion pill.
Notable pro-life organizations, such as Heartbeat International, have already worked to make this switch, combining in-person pregnancy clinics with pro-life support from a women’s smartphone. Take, for example, Heartbeat International’s Option Line - a 24/7 crisis hotline for pregnant women that provides consultation, connects women to their local pregnancy centers, and helps them schedule the necessary appointments [4]. Running since 2000, this hotline reaches close to 1,100 people a day [5], yet very few people think to call this phone number when facing an unexpected pregnancy. Increasing awareness of the Option Line and other pro-life hotlines as well as expanding pro-life hotlines with more languages, more areas, and more volunteers is crucial to the future of unborn life in the United States. But for this to happen, the pro-life movement must recognize the abortion pill as the new front of the war on abortion and the digital landscape as the new battlefield.
The second shift the pro-life movement must undergo is a reimagining of what federal legislation on abortion should look like. In the aftermath of Dobbs, pro-life enthusiasm centered around the idea of a national abortion ban. While such a ban, or national restrictions on abortion at the very least, may be a possibility in the future, such legislation is a hard sell currently. Polls show that most Americans fall in the middle between a full abortion ban and the full legalization of abortion [6]. Often overlooked, however, is the need for congressional action to federally restrict the abortion pill. There is presently no legislation at the national level that seeks to place restrictions on abortion pills, with a patchwork of states attempting to protect their own unborn. As a result, federal abortion pill rules are promulgated primarily by the FDA. The FDA allows the use of abortion pills for the first 10 weeks of a pregnancy, no longer enforces an in-person dispensing requirement, and recently approved certified pharmacies to provide abortion pills directly to the patient [7].
The lack of regulation surrounding the abortion pill means that after a mere online consultation or a single doctor’s appointment, a woman can walk away with a prescription for medication abortion. This prescription can be filled by mail or at a local CVS and then taken at home: no clinic visit, no waiting period, no conversations. Furthermore, this system not only elevates a telehealth abortion system but allows abortion pill trafficking across state lines. Much of this may seem like medical regulation pertinent to only the FDA, yet agencies of the federal government have already intervened in the case of abortion pill access. In 2023, the Justice Department under Merrick Garland issued a legal opinion that allowed the US Postal Service to continue delivering abortion pills, even in states with abortion bans [8]. With this precedent set by the Justice Department and the issue of interstate commerce at hand, it becomes clear that Congress can - and should - pass legislation restricting access to the abortion pill. In particular, the distribution of abortion pills across state lines, either legally or illegally through “pill trafficking,” [9] and the current provision for telehealth providers and pharmacies to distribute these pills are among the most pressing issues needing to be addressed.
The abortion battle is changing, but the pro-life cause and determination aren’t. To ensure the continued survival and efficacy of the pro-life support system across the country, it is time the pro-life movement shifts its defense to match the new anti-life offense. Armed with a renewed emphasis on a digital pro-life platform and a new focus for national legislation, the pro-life movement can be prepared for the next front of the abortion battle: the abortion pill.
Author: Alexis Childs
Works Cited
[1] Guttmacher Institute, “Medication Abortions Accounted for 63% of All US Abortions in 2023, an Increase from 53% in 2020 | Guttmacher Institute,” www.guttmacher.org, March 13, 2024, https://www.guttmacher.org/news-release/2024/medication-abortions-accounted-63-all-us-abortions-2023-increase-53-2020.
[2] Charlotte Lozier Institute. “Fact Sheet: Pro-Life Pregnancy Centers Deliver Real-World Results.” Lozier Institute, January 6, 2023. https://lozierinstitute.org/fact-sheet-pro-life-pregnancy-centers-deliver-real-world-results/.
[3] Charlotte Lozier Institute. “Fact Sheet: Pro-Life Pregnancy Centers Deliver Real-World Results.”
[4] Heartbeat International, “Option Line,” www.heartbeatinternational.org, accessed March 26, 2024, https://www.heartbeatinternational.org/our-work/option-line.
[5] Heartbeat International, “Option Line”
[6] Geoff Mulvihill and Linley Sanders, “Few US Adults Support Full Abortion Bans, Even in States That Have Them, an AP-NORC Poll Finds,” AP News, July 12, 2023, https://apnews.com/article/abortion-poll-roe-dobbs-ban-opinion-fcfdfc5a799ac3be617d99999e92eabe.
[7] KFF, “The Availability and Use of Medication Abortion,” June 8, 2020, https://www.kff.org/womens-health-policy/fact-sheet/the-availability-and-use-of-medication-abortion/.
[8] Perry Stein, “Justice Dept.: Despite Bans, Abortion Pills May Be Mailed to Any State,” The Washington Post, January 4, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/01/04/abortion-pills-mailed-legal/.
[9] Caroline Kitchener, “Covert Network Provides Pills for Thousands of Abortions in U.S. Post Roe,” The Washington Post, October 18, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/10/18/illegal-abortion-pill-network/.
