With the over-saturation of news today and the frequent censorship of pro-life voices, it’s difficult to stay up to date on all abortion related legislation and news. This is especially true when it comes to the victories of the pro-life side. There is an active fight like we’ve never seen before as we watch our new president make changes to abortion policy.
We want to keep you in the know about what’s happening in this year of 2021 regarding abortion. We encourage you to stay informed and engaged with all the local and national abortion updates. To keep fighting, we need to know what we’re coming up against and let it move us to action. We’re in this together.
How Abortion Legislation Impacts Your Center
Before we go any further, it’s important to acknowledge: Pregnancy centers are not political. This is intentional and good. So why are we providing a resource that’s political in nature? Because even if we are not engaged with political change, political change is engaged with us.
Many of the pieces of legislation outlined below will impact how you’re able to reach women in your community. One of the biggest challenges we see for pregnancy centers is the rise in availability of the abortion pill. Women can now order it online in many states, and if the FDA safety standards are removed, more women will order it online all over the US.
This will have a massive impact on your marketing strategies. Costs of PPC will go up as more abortion providers advertise Plan C to women online. You will face even more competition for a woman’s attention online. It will require adjustments to your strategies, and may require you to allocate more of your budget to marketing so you can reach women first. Are you prepared to talk with your donors about this and enlist their support on this new frontier?
So as you read about abortion law changes, keep your goal in mind: Your pregnancy center exists to reach women before they make the life-altering choice to abort their babies. And as the laws change, your strategies may need to change, too.
2021 Anti-Abortion Law Highlights
Let’s start with the good news. According to the Guttmacher Institute, 2021 could be on track for the most “damaging antiabortion state legislative sessions ever.” According to Live Action and a recent analysis by Guttmacher Institute, over 500 new pro-life laws have been introduced in the US so far this year. Here are some of the most recent anti-abortion law changes:
- Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed legislation on May 19th that bans abortion at six weeks of gestation
- Oklahoma governor signed a near-total ban of abortion
- Idaho and Oklahoma governors signed six-week abortion bans
- Montana governor signed a 20-week abortion ban
- Arizona ban on abortion for non-lethal genetic anomalies
- Four new medical abortion restrictions in Montana, three in Indiana, and one in Arizona
- Over 530 new pro-life bills introduced in 2021
- 61 pro-life bills enacted in 2021
Since January 2021, there have been a total of 561 abortion restrictions passed, involving 165 abortion bans, introduced across 47 states (as of June 7, 2021), and 83 of these restrictions have been enacted across 16 states with 10 bans (Guttmacher).
Also according to Guttmacher, from April 26 and April 29, 28 new restrictions were signed into law in seven states which are almost half (46%) of the restrictions passed so far in 2021. This is the highest volume of new restrictions made in a single week in at least a decade!
These anti-abortion law changes are monumental and bring hope to us involved in the pro-life movement. Things are changing for the good and people are demanding change in their state legislation.
New Abortion Legislation Introduced
Now for the not-so-great news, the pro-abortion movement is fighting to stay alive in what was a devastating couple of years for them. Here are some top abortion legislation changes that have been introduced in 2021:
Bill Introduced by Congress to Allow Abortion up to Birth
The 2021 bill, The Women’s Health Protection Act, is being reintroduced in Congress that would allow equal abortion access for all. Because of the Supreme Court case Doe vs. Bolton, women are currently able to abort up to birth with certain loopholes relating to the health of the mother. This bill goes further as it restricts states from banning abortion after viability.
According to Live Action, this bill could wipe out conscience protections, parental notification laws, and informed consent laws. A portion of the Women’s Health Protection Act reads:
“A health care provider has a statutory right to provide abortion services, and may provide abortion services, and that provider’s patient has a corresponding right to receive such services, without a limitation or requirement that… impedes access to abortion services.”
Washington Mandates College Health Insurance Plans to Cover Abortion
Governor Jay Inslee from the state of Washington signed a bill recently that “accredited institutions of higher learning” in that state that provide “coverage for maternity care or services” in its health insurance plan for undergraduate or graduate students will now also have to cover abortion (liveaction.org).
What does this mean? This is yet another attempt to force individuals and corporations to pay for abortions. While certain religious schools are exempt from this mandate, State Senator Mike Padden goes told The College Fix that this bill represents an attack on religious freedom, saying that it’s “just another attempt to force insurance providers to cover abortions regardless of the religious, social or other objections of institutions and individuals.” The mandates the government is making regarding abortion funding need to stop.
The Abortion Industry Hopes to ‘Double’ Number of Providers if Abortion Pill Safety Standards are Removed
Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS) is a drug safety program put in place by the FDA to regulate medication use in the United States. Current REMS regulations stipulates that women can only receive the abortion pill after an in-person visit to a certified prescriber of the abortion pill. The abortion industry wants to lift the FDA’s REMS and believes that in doing so, they will double their number of abortion providers.
A vocal advocate for abortion, Dr. Daniel Grossman, states that “the dispensing requirement [under REMS] represents a barrier to access” and limits “the number of providers of medication abortion….”
As you know, the abortion industry is doing everything it can to eliminate abortion pill restrictions. In April of this year, President Biden and the FDA lifted existing abortion pill restrictions, allowing women to order the pill by mail during the pandemic. Unfortunately, this was only the beginning of their fight to expand access to the abortion pill.
Keep Standing & Keep Fighting
While the fight for life can seem endless, there is more happening behind the scenes than we know. We are the forerunners for change and are upholding the right to life with our actions and our prayers. There is nothing more valuable than life and the life of the moms and families we are impacting every day. Be encouraged and strengthened knowing you are not fighting in vain. We are with you.
While Planned Parenthood and the abortion industry continue to step up their marketing game, pregnancy centers can, too. It’s the secret weapon we have to reach abortion-minded women while legislation continues to give greater access to abortion.
Our marketing team is ready to help you reach even more abortion-minded women to offer love and support in their unplanned pregnancies.
Reach out to our Choose Life Marketing team today to improve your marketing strategy to keep on in the fight for life.
