A further look at NRLC’s “The State of Abortion in the United States—10th edition”: Part Two

By Dave Andrusko

On Monday National Right to Life proudly unveiled its 10^th annual “The State of Abortion in the United States”.

We’ve discussed its amazing content twice: here and here.

On Thursday we discussed three of the report’s seven sections. Today we will look at State Laws & Abortion; The Equal Rights Amendment; a synopsis of U.S. Supreme Court Cases on abortion; and The Presidential Record on Life.

As we talked about yesterday, the Dobbs decision overturning Roe does notmeans that there is no federal role in the abortion debate.  Pro-abortionists will always attempt to pass legislation to preempt state authority. But it does mean that the role of state legislation, always pivotal, has ascended in importance.

As the report makes clear

These state laws have certainly had an impact not only on the abortion numbers, as discussed earlier in this report, but also on educating and reaching the heart and minds of the American public. 2022 was a particularly strong year for the pro-life movement and a victorious one for unborn children at the state level, a year that experienced the complete overturn and reversal of not one but two damning Supreme Court precedents held in Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey.

In addition,

The number of pro-life bills introduced was in the hundreds; several dozen bills that protect mothers and children were enacted in over a dozen states. The aggressive legislative outreach on the part of National Right to Life and its network of state affiliates has contributed to the introduction and passage of successful pro-life legislation across the country

The Equal Rights Amendment’s Executive Summary begins

Pro-abortion groups, seeking a replacement for Roe v. Wade, are engaged in an intensive effort to flatten constitutional guardrails and ram the long-expired 1972 Equal Rights Amendment into the U.S. Constitution. Many elected Democratic officeholders have enlisted in this extra-constitutional campaign. However, for decades federal judges of every political stripe  have rebuffed the politically contrived, legally untenable claims of the ERA revivalists.

And, naturally, they are coming again in 2023:

During 2023, the ERA-revival movement will continue to depend on a misinformation-heavy, “repetition creates reality” strategy, and on a largely sympathetic and often willfully gullible news media, but the movement is likely to also encounter increasing headwinds in the courts and in Congress.

I say without a shadow of a doubt that this is the finest overview of what has transpired with the ERA that you will find anywhere!

It contains an in-depth look at accelerating efforts to resurrect, by extra-constitutional means, the long-expired Equal Rights Amendment, and explains the sweeping impact that the ERA could have on abortion law (an impact once denied but now proclaimed by prominent pro-abortion advocates).

“The Supreme Court & Abortion: A Brief Synopsis of Cases” is the sixth section of the report. In addition to the most famous cases—including,  of course, the 2022 Dobbs decision–this overview provides needed historical perspective going all the way back to the original Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton decisions.

There is a long series of cases in which the Supreme Court shot down commonsense legislation. That began to change, however grudgingly, with Harris v. McRae, the 1980 case which upheld the life-saving Hyde Amendment by the slimmest of margins, 5-4.

“The State of Abortion in the United States” concludes with “The Presidential Record on Life” going all the back to President Ronald Reagan! It’s a fascinating summary of what the last seven presidents have done to either solidify the “right” to abortion or bring it down.

Please be sure to read this 84-page gem which you can find here.