• 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
          • Elizabeth Scalia
          • Michael R. Heinlein
          • Effie Caldarola
          • Guest Commentary
        • CR Columnists
          • Archbishop William E. Lori
          • Rita Buettner
          • Christopher Gunty
          • George Matysek Jr.
          • Mark Viviano
          • 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
        • CR Radio
        • Protagonistas de Fe
  • News Tips
  • Subscribe
Pro-life demonstrators take part in the annual March for Life rally in Washington Jan. 20, 2023, for the first time since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade abortion decision. A lawsuit has been filed against the Smithsonian and the National Archives on behalf of students allegedly kicked out of the museums for wearing pro-life hats during their visit to Washington. (OSV News photo/Evelyn Hockstein, Reuters)

With mixed 2023 results, pro-life activists prepare for a new round of ballot measures

December 31, 2023
By Kate Scanlon
OSV News
Filed Under: Feature, News, Respect Life, World News

Share
Share on Facebook
Share
Share this
Pin
Pin this
Share
Share on LinkedIn

WASHINGTON (OSV News) — The pro-life movement had a mixed record of success in its first full calendar year without Roe v. Wade in place, losing an Ohio ballot measure but also seeing the passage of new legislation limiting the procedure in some states and new streams of support for pregnancy resource centers.

Ohio voters on Nov. 7 approved a measure to codify abortion access in the state’s constitution, legalizing abortion up to the point of fetal viability — the gestational point at which a baby may be capable of living outside the uterus — and beyond, if a physician decided an abortion was necessary for the sake of the mother’s life or health.

People celebrate the defeat of Issue 1, a Republican-backed measure that would have made it harder to amend the state constitution, at the Columbus Fire Fighters Local 67 in Columbus, Ohio, U.S. August 8, 2023. (OSV News photo/Adam Cairns, USA Today Network via Reuters)

The Ohio results were not an outlier, as they followed losses for the pro-life movement in the wake of last year’s Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health decision, which overturned the 1973 Roe decision and related precedent establishing abortion as a constitutional right. In 2022, voters in California, Kentucky, Michigan, Montana, Vermont and Kansas either rejected new limitations on abortion or expanded legal protections for it.

Following Ohio, abortion advocates are seeking to hold comparable votes in 2024 in states including Arizona and Florida.

But also in 2023, several states passed legislation limiting the procedure, including Nebraska and North Carolina, which both limited the procedure after 12 weeks. Other states, including South Carolina, did so after six weeks.

The U.S. Supreme Court also took up its first major abortion case post-Dobbs concerning a challenge to mifepristone, an abortion-inducing drug. A decision is expected next summer in the midst of the presidential election.

Jeanne Mancini, president of the March for Life national organization and a Catholic, told OSV News that post-Dobbs, “states have the capacity to enact great laws.”

“So we know that nearly half of the states have enacted very life-protective laws,” Mancini said. “And that’s exciting to see. And, of course, the other half haven’t and so we certainly have our work cut out for us there.”

Emily V. Osment, SBA Pro-Life America’s vice president of communications, told OSV News that “there have been 24 states that have put pro-life protections in place.”

“That’s an amazing feat, and that means that they have pro-life protections in place for babies in the womb at 12 weeks or earlier,” she said. “So that’s wonderful.”

Both Mancini and Osment also lauded the work of pregnancy resource centers, with Osment pointing to a new 2023 study by Charlotte Lozier Institute, SBA’s research arm, finding that such centers provided at least $358 million in services in the previous year to pregnant women and families including pregnancy tests, ultrasounds, parenting education programs, baby diapers, wipes, formula, and clothing items.

Pro-life advocates gather for the 50th annual March for Life in Washington Jan. 20, 2023. (OSV News photo/Gregory A. Shemitz)

Mancini also pointed to her organization’s growing number of state marches for life, with 17 such events planned for next year at state capitals across the country. The group hopes to be in all 50 states in the coming years.

“There is a lot of cultural confusion right now about this, we’re still sort of in the earthquake reverberations of what the overturn of Roe means, and so many people are confused about that,” Mancini said, explaining why state marches have become so important to the group.

The state marches, Mancini said, often have a Mass in the morning, mentioning one such event in Lansing, Michigan, as particularly impactful because it “had almost all the bishops in Michigan drive out to Lansing that day for that Mass.”

“Just that strength in numbers that they all made that drive for that Mass that morning, it was powerful,” she said.

Asked about how they are preparing for the possibility of more ballot initiatives next year, Mancini said her group will work to change hearts and minds on the issue.

“There’s also confusion over what the ballot initiatives are about, like so many people think that those ballot initiatives return the state to a pre-Dobbs sort of place policy-wise, but they take it much, much further than that,” she said.

Osment said fundraising will also be a key part of SBA’s efforts on potential ballot initiatives next year.

“We’ve learned a lot of lessons in Ohio and we are taking all of those lessons to allies in the states,” she said. “And the number one lesson that we are saying is you better start raising money now.”

Read More Respect Life

Ireland’s abortion rates rise 62 percent over 5 years; Catholic advocates call it ‘a tragedy’

Judge blocks defunding of some, but not all, Planned Parenthood groups

Is NFP finally breaking into medical schools?

Nearly one in three conceptions in England and Wales end in abortion, government figures reveal

Planned Parenthood

Judge blocks, for now, Planned Parenthood defunding provision backed by bishops

Report: US abortions continue post-Dobbs rise in part due to telehealth

Copyright © 2023 OSV News

Print Print

Share
Share on Facebook
Share
Share this
Pin
Pin this
Share
Share on LinkedIn

Primary Sidebar

Kate Scanlon

Click here to 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 |

  • Prince of Peace merges with St. Francis de Sales in Harford County

  • Detroit archbishop fires theologians Ralph Martin, Eduardo Echeverría from seminary

  • Construction underway on new north addition to St. Joseph’s Nursing Home 

  • Archdiocese of Baltimore offers resources for parishes to assist migrants

  • Archbishop Wenski leads Knights on Bikes to pray rosary at Alligator Alcatraz

| Latest Local News |

Archdiocese of Baltimore offers resources for parishes to assist migrants

Third annual gun buyback scheduled for Aug. 9

Driver arrested after crashing into entrance of Esperanza Center

Construction underway on new north addition to St. Joseph’s Nursing Home 

Prince of Peace merges with St. Francis de Sales in Harford County

| Latest World News |

Warsaw archbishop ‘devastated, crushed’ by priest’s arrest in brutal murder of homeless man

Jubilee of Youth chance to celebrate hope, fraternity in world at war, panel says

New York archdiocese sees hundreds of responses to ‘Called By Name’ program

Can’t afford a Catholic college? Think again. Many offer full tuition options

Detroit archbishop fires theologians Ralph Martin, Eduardo Echeverría from seminary

| 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

  • Warsaw archbishop ‘devastated, crushed’ by priest’s arrest in brutal murder of homeless man
  • Jubilee of Youth chance to celebrate hope, fraternity in world at war, panel says
  • New York archdiocese sees hundreds of responses to ‘Called By Name’ program
  • Can’t afford a Catholic college? Think again. Many offer full tuition options
  • Detroit archbishop fires theologians Ralph Martin, Eduardo Echeverría from seminary
  • LA archbishop, joined by business leaders, starts fund to help families affected by ICE raids
  • FBI surveilled SSPX priest amid probe of suspected neo-Nazi’s plans for violence
  • Poland’s ‘living memorial’ to St. John Paul II marks 25 years of transforming lives
  • Our faith is not afraid of questions

Search

Membership

Catholic Media Assocation

Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association

The Associated Church Press

© 2025 CATHOLIC REVIEW MEDIA, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

en Englishes Spanish
en en