The Roberts Court, April 23, 2021 Seated from left to right: Justices Samuel A. Alito, Jr. and Clarence Thomas, Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., and Justices Stephen G. Breyer and Sonia Sotomayor Standing from left to right: Justices Brett M. Kavanaugh, Elena Kagan, Neil M. Gorsuch, and Amy Coney Barrett. Photograph by Fred Schilling, Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States
CV NEWS FEED // A recent Politico column profiled a number of abortionists and pro-abortion activists who openly admitted that they believe the pro-life movement may soon succeed in making abortion illegal throughout much of America.
Pro-abortion groups have formed a network focused on what to do when abortion is driven “underground,” wrote Darius Tahir at Politico. In other words, a “community” of abortionists and activists are conspiring to continue aborting children criminally when abortion is banned by states.
Their motivation comes from the recent announcement by the Supreme Court that they will review a Mississippi law that would ban abortions after fifteen weeks of gestation, a case Tahir described as “putting Roe vs. Wade under its roughest stress test yet.”
As CatholicVote reported in May:
If Mississippi wins the case at the Supreme Court … the ruling could provide the legal basis for other state bans, including so-called “heartbeat bills” to prohibit abortions after an unborn child’s heartbeat can be detected. Preborn babies’ heartbeats can be heard as early as six weeks, which is nine weeks sooner than the 15 week limit in the Mississippi law.
The consensus among many of the abortion activists who spoke to Politico this week is that the Supreme Court is quite likely to grant Mississippi, and by extension all states, the right to effectively ban nearly all abortions.
“The community had spent the pandemic dealing with the ‘abortionpocalypse’ — a wave of red state restrictions on procedures to terminate pregnancies,” wrote Tahir,
by recruiting new members and online providers, adding new privacy features that could shield them from law enforcement and organizing. And now, with the court’s decision to hear the Mississippi case in its upcoming term, they’re confronting a new threat.
“Even though our work is legal and we’re not doing anything wrong, we operate under the assumption what we do could become illegal at any time,” a member of one abortion group told Tahir.
Tahir also quoted Robin Marty, who has even written a book called “Handbook for Post-Roe America,” which “describes to readers how they can prepare — from obtaining pills online to organizing politically — for a country with statewide bans on abortion.”
Pro-abortion activists “have so much fatigue when it comes to, ‘This is the worst. No, now this is even worse. Oh wait, this is even worse than that’,” Marty said.
“Even without a sweeping court ruling, current trends are likely to continue as GOP-controlled states erect ever-more-stringent abortion restrictions,” Tahir wrote, “even to the extent of providing ‘private rights of action’ for ordinary citizens to enforce such restrictions against friends and neighbors, as Texas has done.”
“If Roe goes down — we hope it won’t — there are always going to be ways to access abortion,” abortion activist Elisa Wells told Politico.
Tahir went on to describe how abortion activists are already learning to use “underground” online forums and other surreptitious, sometimes criminal means to get women abortion pills which they can self-administer at home.
They began doing this, Tahir wrote, during COVID lockdowns, when women felt uncomfortable visiting clinics in person, and if abortions become illegal in a given state, they plan to expand these activities in violation of the law of the land.
These underground activities are a “nightmare” to pro-life advocates, Tahir wrote. Some of the lengths abortionists and activists are going to in order to keep the abortion industry active are especially disturbing.
“Teleabortion,” in which “a doctor instructs the patient over a video link,” remains legal in some states. Even if it were not, however, it would still represent one of many ways for abortionists to continue their work in a manner that would be difficult to enforce against. Tahir mentioned pro-life advocate’s “fears that more abortions will be conducted at home, outside the gaze of the law.”
One anonymous activist said her online group, which exists to guide expectant mothers toward getting abortions, takes “privacy very, very, very seriously, and use technology to that end.” They also give “very carefully worded advice … on self-managed abortion,” she said.
“It’s funny how legality is often about the words you use and not the actions you take,” she added. “But that is walking the tightrope of what’s left of Roe v Wade.”
As abortion providers shift much of their work online, President Biden has signaled he may soon help them by directing the FDA to lift sanctions against the online sale and shipment of abortion-inducing drugs, which critics argue are dangerous.
Tahir quoted a number of pro-life commentators as well. “If the abortion lobby’s ultimate dream succeeds …brick-and-mortar facilities will become obsolete,” wrote Marjorie Dannenfelser, the president of the pro-life Susan B. Anthony List.
“They want to make it seem that it’s as unserious as picking up a vitamin from CVS,” said Roger Severino, who served as director of the Health and Human Service Department’s Office for Civil Rights under the Trump administration.
Readers can find the full column at Politico.
