In the first statewide march for life after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. wade, thousands of Pennsylvania pro-life residents turned out for a rally to oppose abortion.
The Pennsylvania March for Life saw pro-life advocates flooding the state capitol and the streets surrounding it to make it clear they want their state to join the 15 others that have already passed pro-life laws protecting babies from abortions.
And with the November elections just 8 weeks away, many of those pro-life advocates are looking ahead to major battles in their state pitting pro-abortion candidates against pro-life candidates.
Keely Burke, a 27-year-old Quakertown mom who had her first baby six months ago, said she would love to see Pennsylvania join the ranks of states that have passed all-out bans on abortion.
“That will be a great day that day babies are fully protected just like we are,” Burke said. “This is definitely a single issue thing for me. I will only look at people who are prolife and that’s who I will vote for and if they don’t, they will not be getting my vote.”
That seemed to be a prominent sentiment on Monday among the sea of participants who were holding up signs and posters proclaiming their anti-abortion views. The state Department of General Services estimated the crowd size to be somewhere between, 5,000 and 5,500.
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Massive crowd at the Pennsylvania March for Life today! h/t @MaryMargOlohan pic.twitter.com/QfkKPZEgrn
— LifeNews.com (@LifeNewsHQ) September 19, 2022
“There’s lots of families who want babies who can’t have their own kids,” said the 31-year-old Quakertown mom.
Abortion, Wenhold said, was the singular issue driving her vote.
“I vote prolife,” she said. “I would forgo other things to vote prolife. I was raised prolife. I believe that’s what God wants.”
As LifeNews reported, the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, with a 6-3 majority ruling in the Dobbs case that “The Constitution does not confer a right to abortion” — allowing states to ban abortions and protect unborn babies. The high court also ruled 6-3 uphold the Mississippi 15-week abortion ban so states can further limit abortions and to get rid of the false viability standard.
Chief Justice John Roberts technically voted for the judgment but, in his concurring opinion, disagreed with the reasoning and said he wanted to keep abortions legal but with a new standard.
Texas and Oklahoma had banned abortions before Roe was overturned and Missouri became the first state after Roe to protect babies from abortions and South Dakota became the 2nd. Then Arkansas became the third state protecting babies from abortions and Kentucky became the 4th and Louisiana became the 5th and Ohio became the 6th and Utah became the 7th and Oklahoma became the 8th and Alabama became the 9th. This week, Mississippi became the 10th and South Carolina became the 11th,Texas became the 12th with its pre-Roe law and Tennessee became the 13th.
Michigan, Wisconsin and West Virginia have old pro-life laws on the books but there is question about whether they are applicable and will be enforced.
Ultimately, as many as 26 states could immediately or quickly ban abortions and protect babies from certain death for the first time in nearly 50 years.
The 13 total states with trigger laws that would effectively ban all or most abortions are: Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Mississippi, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Wyoming.
“Abortion presents a profound moral question. The Constitution does not prohibit the citizens of each State from regulating or prohibiting abortion. Roe and Casey arrogated that authority. We now overrule those decisions and return that authority to the people and their elected representatives,” Alito wrote.
“Roe was egregiously wrong from the start. Its reasoning was exceptionally weak, and the decision has had damaging consequences,” Alito wrote. “And far from bringing about a national settlement of the abortion issue, Roe and Casey have enflamed debate and deepened division.”
Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Stephen Breyer authored a joint dissent condemning the decision as enabling states to enact “draconian” restrictions on women.
Polls show Americans are pro-life on abortion and a new national poll shows 75% of Americans essentially agree with the Supreme Court overturning Roe.
Despite false reports that abortion bans would prevent doctors from treating pregnant women for miscarriages or ectopic pregnancies, pro-life doctors confirm that is not the case. Some 35 states have laws making it clear that miscarriage is not abortion and every state with an abortion ban allows treatment for both.
