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For many #Americans, the overturning of #RoeVWade …marked the…culmination of a 50-yr crusade. Nothing about it was secret: Getting rid of #abortion was the focus of a large network of #conservative activists, a central theme in #GOP platforms & campaigns, a litmus test for judges at nearly every level, & one of the decisive issues that bonded social #conservatives to #Trump.

And yet, when #SCOTUS handed them their victory in #Dobbs v. Jackson #WomensHealth Organization, the #ProLife movement & its #Republican allies were woefully unprepared. 2 yrs later, that triumph looks more & more like a tragedy—not just for #women, but for the movement as well.

For 5 decades, being pro-life was an easy call for many Republican #politicians, because w/ #Roe in place, they were essentially shooting toy guns. In June 2022, they were handed live ammunition.

Suddenly faced w/a post #Roe world, #Republicans flailed. They could not agree on whether the new #bans on #access should be subject to national #legislation or left to the states. They couldn’t agree on the length of the bans (6 wks? 15 wks?), whether to allow #exceptions, or how punitive the new #laws should be. Should #doctors be #jailed? Should women who had #abortions be charged w/ #murder?

The absence of consensus created a political vacuum that allowed some of the most #extreme activists to push draconian measures in state legislatures.

#Republicans were faced w/a host of questions…. Should #AbortionPills be banned? #IVF? How should states handle #miscarriages? (this month, #SCOTUS unanimously rejected a challenge to…the #abortion & #miscarriage-management drug #mifepristone. But efforts cont to restrict its use, incl a prop from #Project2025, organized by #HeritageFoundation…)

And what about creating a “culture of life”? After all, this is what the term #ProLife was supposed to represent. For years, some conservatives …argued that pro-lifers needed to embrace pro-child policies such as tax credits & increased #access to #HealthCare. Some tried to create an infrastructure to support families post-#Roe. But after half a century, they had little to show for it.

As Emma Green noted in The Atlantic back in 2020, “an inherent tension” exists within the current #ProLife coalition. “Over the past 2 decades,” she wrote, “the anti-#abortion-rights movement has aligned itself almost exclusively w/the #GOP, which generally favors cutting government #funding for #housing, #FoodStamps, & other programs that support #poor #women & #children.”