Savoring their victory on Friday after the Supreme Court's decision, abortion opponents have promised to do everything possible to ensure that every American state bans the practice.
Describing the decision as a
"historic victory for human rights"
, supporters of the movement announced their entry into a new phase, centered on the local level.
The Supreme Court having dynamited the constitutional right to abortion, each State is now free to make its choice.
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But for other activists, the ultimate goal is to return to the high court to ensure that fetuses have the same rights as a person, which would amount to making abortion murder.
It is a
"brand new pro-life movement
(name given to anti-abortion activists, editor's note)
"
which is beginning, judged Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the group Susan B. Anthony List.
"We are ready to go on the offensive to defend life in every legislative body, in every state legislature and in the White House,"
she said.
Same echo from the side of the March for Life group, which recalled in a press release that
"although it is a big step in the right direction, overthrowing Roe
(see Wade, judgment which guaranteed this right, editor's note)
does not put an end to abortion”.
Total ban
Some of this work has already been done.
Nearly half of the States should prohibit or drastically limit access to this procedure - some laws even came into force almost immediately after the Court's decision.
But other states, like California, are taking the opposite route, promising to protect this right.
For activists in favor of access to abortion as for their opponents, the battle is now changing scale, to be played out in the courts or during local elections.
The March for Life group immediately sent out a fundraising email to boost local efforts.
“To say that we are delighted would be an understatement, but our work does not stop there,”
commented these activists.
They pointed to efforts by the other side to try to secure federal legislation and White House executive orders to protect access to abortion.
Marjorie Dannenfelser explained that her group is focusing on the midterm elections in November, in which Republicans hope to regain control of the House of Representatives and the Senate.
"Today's decision raises the stakes"
of these elections, she said.
But the movement sees much further, and would like to obtain from Congress or the Supreme Court a total ban on abortion, on the grounds that a fetus has the same rights as
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"Throughout history, so many groups have been unjustly deprived of their 'person' status by society and by law,"
said March for Life.
"Abortion is no different."
"We want the abolition of abortion
," said Americans United for Life.
“The issue of abortion will never be settled until the Supreme Court strikes down this moral scourge.”
Another battlefield: abortion pills, which today represent half of abortions in the United States.
Easy to buy on the internet, they reduce the scope of the bans - which the States are well aware of.
Kentucky and South Dakota have recently banned the sending of these pills by mail.