• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Catholic Review

Catholic Review

Inspiring the Archdiocese of Baltimore

Menu
  • Home
  • News
        • Local News
        • World News
        • Vatican News
        • Obituaries
        • Featured Video
        • En Español
        • Sports News
        • Official Clergy Assignments
        • Schools News
  • Commentary
        • Contributors
          • Question Corner
          • George Weigel
          • Effie Caldarola
          • John Garvey
          • Father Ed Dougherty, M.M.
          • Guest Commentary
        • CR Columnists
          • Archbishop William E. Lori
          • Rita Buettner
          • Christopher Gunty
          • George Matysek Jr.
          • Father Joseph Breighner
          • Father Collin Poston
          • Robyn Barberry
          • Hanael Bianchi
          • Amen Columns
  • Entertainment
        • Events
        • Movie & Television Reviews
        • Arts & Culture
        • Books
        • Recipes
  • About Us
        • Contact Us
        • Our History
        • Meet Our Staff
        • Photos to own
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • CR Media platforms
        • Electronic Edition
  • Advertising
  • Shop
        • Purchase Photos
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • Magazine Subscriptions
        • Archdiocesan Directory
  • CR Radio
  • News Tips
  • Subscribe
Pro-life demonstrators are seen near the Supreme Court in Washington June 15, 2022. After 2022 offered a mixed bag of political outcomes for the pro-life cause -- the historic reversal of Roe v. Wade followed by ballot initiative losses in multiple states -- activists set their sights on 2024. (CNS photo/Tyler Orsburn)

After mixed record in 2022, pro-life activists set sights on 2024 campaign cycle

January 20, 2023
By Kate Scanlon
OSV News
Filed Under: Feature, News, Respect Life, U.S. Congress, World News

WASHINGTON (OSV News) — After 2022 offered a mixed bag of political outcomes for the pro-life cause, with the historic reversal of Roe v. Wade followed by ballot initiative losses in multiple states, pro-life activists are setting their sights on the 2024 campaign cycle.

The U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision in June 2022 overturned a half-century of precedent of prior rulings by the high court making abortion access a constitutional right. But in the following months, as states began to put into effect individual laws protecting or limiting abortion, voters in six states either rejected ballot measures meant to restrict the procedure, or voted to codify measures protecting it.

In a Jan. 18 press call with reporters, just days before the first post-Dobbs national March for Life in the nation’s capital, representatives of the Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, which works to elect anti-abortion candidates, cast an optimistic tone about their chances in the next election cycle.

“All the work that we’ve already been doing with potential presidential candidates will have fruits,” Marjorie Dannenfelser, the group’s president, said, indicating its conversations with the potential Republican challengers to Democratic President Joe Biden. “They’re figuring out what their position will be in establishing a federal minimum standard (restricting legal abortion).”

Republicans were originally predicted by some analysts to have a commanding midterm performance in 2022, winning the House by a margin of as many as 30 seats, as Biden had low approval ratings due to inflation. But the GOP won just a razor-thin House majority and failed to win control of the Senate, bucking those early predictions.

Some Republicans, including former President Donald Trump, have sought to blame the issue of abortion for the party’s underperformance in the 2022 midterm election cycle.

Trump, who has declared his 2024 candidacy for president, accused pro-life voters of disloyalty to him by not showing up to vote in the midterm elections, saying in a Jan. 1 Truth Social post they “just plain disappeared, not to be seen again” after the Supreme Court overturned Roe.

But some election analysts argued that while the issue of abortion energized Democratic voters, candidate quality issues with many of Trump’s handpicked Republican candidates, as well as his continued unfounded claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him, hurt his party’s standing with voters.

Without naming Trump, who was backed by SBA Pro-Life America in his previous bids for the White House, Dannenfelser argued that any Republican candidate who shies away from the issue of abortion has “very little chance of winning the nomination.”

Dannenfelser argued the lesson from the 2022 elections is that candidates who embrace what she called the “ostrich strategy” by failing to discuss their pro-life platforms won’t see electoral success by sidestepping the issue.

“The ostrich strategy is disastrous for candidates,” Dannenfelser said. “Because of the fear of the tsunami of Roe v. Wade being overturned, so many candidates decided to pretend like the wind wasn’t blowing, and when they got accused of being for complete bans — which no federal candidate was advocating for a complete ban — they said, ‘Well, how about those Redskins? Or how about foreign policy? Or how about anything but the abortion issue?’ There were a handful of candidates, too many, that did just exactly that.”

“Abortion really can hurt them when that’s how they behave,” she added, arguing that candidates who openly discussed the issue were the candidates who exceeded some forecasts. She singled out Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis — a Catholic who is seen as a potential Republican presidential candidate, but who has not as of yet announced his candidacy — as one example.

Kate Scanlon is the national reporter covering Washington for OSV News.

Read More Respect Life

Tuberville ends hold on hundreds of military promotions over Pentagon abortion policy

Report: Fewer states use capital punishment, but more prisoners executed in 2023

Mexican Catholics condemn euthanasia initiative

‘I had Indi baptized to protect her,’ says father of 8-month-old British girl at her funeral

Pope offers condolences to mourners at Indi Gregory’s funeral

How do we win the abortion battle? Maybe like this.

Copyright © 2023 OSV News

Print Print

Primary Sidebar

Kate Scanlon

Our Sunday Visitor is a Catholic publisher serving millions of Catholics globally through its publishing and communication services. Kate Scanlon is a national reporter for OSV News covering Washington. Follow her on Twitter @kgscanlon.

View all posts from this author

For the latest news delivered twice a week via email or text message, sign up to receive our free enewsletter.

| MOST POPULAR |

  • Quirk of calendar requires two obligations for Masses at Christmas time
  • Wearing a rosary can make a Latino a target for police, historian says
  • Powerful masterpiece: Beloved rendition of Handel’s Messiah coming to Baltimore Basilica
  • Univ. of Notre Dame names Father Robert Dowd its new president
  • Movie Review: ‘Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé’

| Latest Local News |

Choosing your gaze: Hispanic Youth Ministry Retreat provides a weekend of spiritual growth, unity

Catholic High crowned again as Baltimore’s best girls private school by magazine

Baltimore City approves inclusive housing bill

| Latest World News |

Proposed referendum for Irish Constitution calls for widening the definition of family

Pope, Council of Cardinals discussed the role of women in the church

Archbishop exhorts Advent vigilance as national shrine’s Holy Door sealed

| Catholic Review Radio |

CatholicReview · Catholic Review Radio

Footer

Our Vision

Real Life. Real Faith. 

Catholic Review Media communicates the Gospel and its impact on people’s lives in the Archdiocese of Baltimore and beyond.

Our Mission

Catholic Review Media provides intergenerational communications that inform, teach, inspire and engage Catholics and all of good will in the mission of Christ through diverse forms of media.

Contact

Catholic Review
320 Cathedral Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
443-524-3150
mail@CatholicReview.org

 

Social Media

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Recent

  • Choosing your gaze: Hispanic Youth Ministry Retreat provides a weekend of spiritual growth, unity
  • ‘You kill your crickets, eh?’ Discovering Dickens’ other Christmas tale
  • Catholic High crowned again as Baltimore’s best girls private school by magazine
  • Proposed referendum for Irish Constitution calls for widening the definition of family
  • Pope, Council of Cardinals discussed the role of women in the church
  • Archbishop exhorts Advent vigilance as national shrine’s Holy Door sealed
  • Holy Spirit inspires creativity, simplicity in evangelization, pope says
  • Tuberville ends hold on hundreds of military promotions over Pentagon abortion policy
  • Can one Mass satisfy my Sunday and Christmas obligation in 2023?

Search

Membership

Catholic Media Assocation

Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association

The Associated Church Press

© 2023 CATHOLIC REVIEW MEDIA, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED