One year after Dobbs, America’s pro-life movement is in flux
FOR THE first 12 years of her life Audrey Wascome’s grandparents raped her to make child pornography. She dodged pregnancy, but because of scar tissue her bladder no longer works as it should. On May 10th Ms Wascome, now an anti-violence advocate, testified before the Louisiana House’s criminal-justice committee for a bill that would carve out exceptions for rape and incest from the state’s abortion ban. Pro-lifers responded by calling for punishment for rapists rather than “death penalty” for fetuses, and argued that exceptions would make women clamour to put ex-lovers behind bars to “dispense with the inconvenience of giving birth”. Fixing one tragedy with another, they said, does no good. At roll-call the bill died, with lawmakers voting neatly on party lines.
After the vote, pro-lifers convened for a celebratory lunch in the private suite of the lieutenant-governor. A pastor prayed for “the unborn life, liberty and limited government”. Like the movement overall, many of the pro-lifers at the capitol were born-again Christians—a “God-squad” of mostly white Catholics and evangelicals who consider themselves to be wrestling an evil as grave as slavery or the Holocaust.
Before the ruling in Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organisation, which one year ago scrapped Roe v Wade and let states ban abortion, pro-lifers were a pretty united bunch. Leaders and grassroots organisers found a common enemy in Roe. But since the Supreme Court decided to “stay out of the dehumanisation business for good”, as one pro-lifer put it, the movement has been in flux. After the festivities—some say the founding fathers rejoiced in heaven when Roe fell—pro-lifers realised sending power back to the states was just the beginning. “Dobbs was the day we waited for for close to 40 years,” says Gene Mills, head of the Louisiana Family Forum, a non-profit group. “What now?”
2023-06-22 08:46:55
Original from www.economist.com
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