GUEST POST: In recent weeks, our nation has witnessed some of the most extreme pro-abortion legislation at the state level than ever before. In Vermont, legislators voted to move forward with enshrining elective abortion without limits in their state constitution. Pro-abortion lawmakers in Maryland are also seeking to secure a referendum to have elective abortion protected under their state constitution.  

The 1973 United States Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade led to legal elective abortion in all 50 states for the past nearly five decades. However, the Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson could change that, and pro-life and pro-abortion supporters know that a Post-Roe America is coming. 

Pro-life states have sought to incrementally add more protections for preborn babies and are now preparing to outlaw abortion if Roe is overturned. We can expect to see more measures protecting babies from the time they have a detectable heartbeat, from the time they are conceived, from the arbitrary 15-week gestational age (popularized by the Dobbs case), and from Chemical Abortion pills in various ways. As pro-life states increase these protections for the preborn, more states will become abortion-free.  

Other states, like Vermont and Maryland, are trying to ensure that preborn babies can be killed in the womb no matter what happens at the federal level. These measures supposably focus on “women’s rights,” “reproductive rights,” and all the other euphemisms with which the abortion industry has been selling the death of innocent children. However, authentic women’s rights and women’s empowerment does not require the destruction of her preborn child—but that does not stop abortion supporters from pretending otherwise and selling their legislation accordingly.  

The politicians behind these radical measures to codify elective abortion, often with the funding of the abortion industry, claim to represent what the people of their state want. Is that true? Polling in recent years has shown that support for abortion is not as high as people assume, especially among younger generations. Students for Life of America’s Institute for Pro-Life Advancement reports that the majority of Millennials and Gen Z  support restrictions on abortion and many do not want taxpayer funding of abortion. These are hugely important findings when it comes to Roe.  

Abortion groups will often point to polling showing that voters are “pro-choice” or do not want Roe v. Wade overturned. For example, polling in California last fall showed that 79 percent of likely voters do not want Roe overturned. California is a strongly pro-abortion state which already has taxpayer-funding for elective abortion, so perhaps the results are not surprising. However, it does not indicate in the polling that any of the people questioned were asked to explain what Roe entails. This is an important distinction because if they knew Roe well, it is likely the results would be very different. 

Students for Life of America (SFLA) President Kristan Hawkins explained the “bizarre contradiction,” writing, “Many more Americans support the vague concept of Roe (the “right to choose”) than they do the actual tenets of Roe (abortion on demand through all nine months of pregnancy, for any reason, and often funded by taxpayers).” People can easily support the abstraction of “women’s rights” and the “right to choose,” but most people recognize and object to the injustice of ending the life of an innocent human being. 

A Gallup poll from last year found that 58 percent of Americans wanted to uphold Roe. Well below California’s 79 percent, this number may still be vastly inflated. Gallup has shown elsewhere that only 13 percent of Americans are in favor of abortion in the third trimester—something that is inherent in the Roe v. Wade decision. As Hawkins noted, “That means there’s a huge discrepancy between Americans saying they support Roe and understanding that Roe is synonymous with abortion being ‘legal in all circumstances.’” 

For decades, the abortion industry has used the wrongly decided Roe v. Wade decision to claim that elective abortion is settled law. They frequently cite a “constitutional right” to end the lives of the preborn (though when pushed to be more specific, you usually hear crickets). There never was a right to abortion in the constitution and even abortion lobbyists know this. That’s why they are turning to the states to push through constitutional amendments at the state level to codify the legal killing of preborn babies. 

The constitutional amendments in Vermont and Maryland still need to pass in a referendum. What is once again being called “choice” and “women’s rights” is elective abortion without limits. Poll after poll demonstrates that voters, especially younger voters, do not support this extremism and reject abortion without limits. If voters understood the reality behind the deceptive language in pro-abortion states, they would reject these extreme measures, as well. We know they will not hear the truth from abortion supporters; it’s up to the Pro-Life Generation to reveal the truth about legal abortion and the destruction of innocent human life. Even in the most historically pro-abortion states, there is an opportunity to inform voters and change hearts and minds.