The movement and Republican leaders, according to Krason, need to make a case against abortion, which defines human life as starting at the moment of conception, in a way “that will reach all realms of the population.”
“You have to confront and you have to educate, and you can’t be afraid to confront the opposition,” Krason said.
What do the polls show?
Some analysts, however, believe the pro-life movement’s shortcomings have more to do with public opinion being against them than it does with the debates over strategy.
More in US
“The pro-life forces will have difficulty going forward,” Karlyn Bowman, a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute who analyzes polls, told CNA.
Bowman sees a disconnect between the pro-life referendum effort in Ohio and what the voters prioritize, which is “the power of choice [and] being able to choose.” She argued that the polling related to abortion, similar to that of COVID-19 vaccine mandates and laws related to smoking, showed support for “the power of personal choice and people wanting their personal choices respected,” which is a “powerful part of what we regularly would see in surveys.”
For the referendums that ultimately make it on the ballot in 2024, Bowman said she does not expect different results “apart from very conservative states,” noting that many of the pro-life losses happened in Republican-dominated states such as Kansas, Kentucky, and Montana.
Where will abortion be on the ballot in 2024?
Referendums in Maryland and New York, two Democratic strongholds, will be on the Nov. 5 ballots in 2024. Both referendums would establish new rights in their state constitutions that guarantee a right to abortion.
In six states, there are proposed pro-abortion ballot referendums for the 2024 election, which have yet to be certified: Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Missouri, Nevada, and South Dakota. In four states, there are proposed pro-life ballot referendums for the election, which have not yet been certified: Colorado, Iowa, Nebraska, and Pennsylvania.
Bowman said “maybe a handful” of these proposals will make it on the 2024 ballots because it “isn’t that easy [to get referendums certified in many] states,” adding that “I don’t know whether all of these will qualify.”
(Story continues below)
Subscribe to our daily newsletter
What happened in other states?
About two weeks ago, voters in Ohio approved a referendum that enshrined a new right to “reproductive freedom,” including “abortion,” in the state constitution with 56.6% of people supporting the measure and only 43.4% of people opposing it. In an off-year election that brought out more than 3.8 million voters, the pro-life opposition to the amendment fell more than half of a million votes short of where it needed to be.
In the 2022 elections, proposed referendums backed by the pro-life movement failed in all three states where they were considered: Kansas, Kentucky, and Montana, all of which are normally Republican strongholds.
The proposals in Kentucky and Kansas would have clarified that the states’ constitutions did not protect a right to an abortion. The election was close in Kentucky, failing by less than a five-point margin, but worse in Kansas, failing by about an 18-point margin. The proposal in Montana, which would have given legal personhood to a child born alive after a failed abortion, failed by a little more than a five-point margin.
In Michigan, a Democratic-leaning swing state, voters passed a constitutional amendment via referendum to enshrine a right to abortion in the state constitution. This passed by a margin of 14 points — a slightly larger margin than Ohio’s proposal. Similar abortion referendums passed in two strong Democratic states, Vermont and California, by much larger margins.
Tyler Arnold is a staff reporter for the National Catholic Register. He previously worked at The Center Square and has been published in a variety of outlets, including The Associated Press, National Review, The American Conservative and The Federalist.
Share on Facebook «||» Share on Twitter «||» Share on Reddit «||» Share on LinkedIn
Read Related News On TDPel Media
