Almost half a year after more than a dozen states banned abortion following the Supreme Court's overturning of Roe v. Wade, many conservatives are upset that the law is not being enforced, and even broken in plain sight, The Washington Post reported on Wednesday.
The main concern of anti-abortion advocates is that the increasing availability of illegal abortion pills has undermined their landmark victory, as abortion rights activists have boosted efforts to funnel abortion pills into states with strict new bans, and conservatives are searching for new ways to crack down on those defying the law.
Although violating abortion bans is a crime punishable by at least several years in prison across much of the South and Midwest, experts say that people are not being charged for violating it.
"Everyone who is trafficking these pills should be in jail for trafficking," said Marjorie Dannenfelser, the president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, who has started to speak with Republican governors about the prevalence of illegal abortion pill networks. "It hasn't happened, but that doesn't mean it won't."
A Society of Family Planning study found that at least 10,000 fewer clinical abortions took place in the first two months after Roe was overturned, but it is unclear how many women were able to get pills through the mail that terminated their pregnancies.
One of the problems with a major enforcement effort is that the midterm elections demonstrated that abortion rights are popular across party lines, with backlash from overturning Roe widely credited with helping Democrats achieve some critical wins, The Washington Post reported.
Democrat Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who easily won reelection in a state that also voted to protect abortion rights through a ballot measure, said that "Democrats should not be shy about being bold and using every tool to fight for individual rights," adding that states that have the ability to do a Michigan-style ballot initiative "should certainly be exploring it."
But abortion rights advocates warn that ballot measures, due to the high price tag for mounting such a campaign, can't happen everywhere simultaneously.
One example of how anti-abortion advocates are pressing their case is in Texas, where lawmakers are drafting legislation that would make internet providers block people from accessing abortion pill websites, although even antiabortion lawyers say such laws would raise free speech concerns.
Dannenfelser said she plans to take steps at enforcement by strategizing with anti-abortion governors about the best ways to deal with the illegal pill networks.
"Every governor, especially governors who have passed ambitious laws, have it in their interest to make sure that laws in their states aren't de facto overturned by pills going into every part of their state, through organizations that are directly violating the law," Dannenfelser said.
But anti-abortion advocates nationwide will also have to contend with moderate Republicans who have been pressing for less severe restrictions.
Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
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