The anti-abortion movement doesn’t want you know what’s next.
A new ProPublica investigation, however, reveals architects of the anti-abortion movement are pushing state lawmakers to install full abortion bans with no exceptions for life, rape or incest and to ban IVF and contraception.
The expose, centered on audio recordings of a recent meeting between anti-abortion leaders and anti-abortion Tennessee state lawmakers, provides an unusually candid glimpse into the movement’s current and long-term priorities: Abortion care sought by women with high-risk medical circumstances are framed as “quasi-elective” abortions that lawmakers need to “make sure… are being stopped.” They also suggested investigating the medical histories of people who obtain abortion care and tracking physicians, who are explicitly assumed guilty until proven otherwise under the “affirmative defense” provision of Tennessee’s law.
According to the report, lawmakers were advised by the anti-abortion leaders to ignore citizen opposition and to not share their intentions with the public.
When fielding questions regarding forcing rape victims to carry pregnancies against their will, anti-abortion activists urged lawmakers to “hide behind the skirts of” rape victims who carried the resulting pregnancy to term.
The anti-abortion strategists caught advising Tennessee lawmakers how to enact what amounts to human rights abuses into law while gaming the public about their intentions included representatives from Tennessee Right to Life, national group Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America (SBA), and SBA’s non-profit arm the Charlotte Lozier Institute (CLI).
Representatives from these national groups have also advised Pennsylvania’s anti-abortion lawmakers. Four Pennsylvania politicians, including Rep. Kathy Rapp, current chair of the Health Committee of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, signed on to a brief in coordination with SBA supporting the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
Pennsylvania voters, meanwhile, just re-affirmed majority support for reproductive rights and abortion access and mobilized to defend reproductive rights and abortion access in the midterms.
But we can’t get comfortable. As the leaked audio of this horrifying meeting makes clear, we need to understand the long-term intentions of the anti-abortion movement and fight every anti-abortion effort to deny us reproductive autonomy. We must resist their efforts to enforce government control over our personal lives and medical choices.
Women’s Law Project is a public interest law center in Pennsylvania devoted to advancing and defending the rights of women, girls, and LGBTQ+ people in Pennsylvania and beyond. As a non-profit organization, we can not do this work without you. Please consider supporting our work.
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