The Supreme Court, Glenn said, took the issue out of lawmakers’ hands with its Roe ruling and said, “We know better than state lawmakers. We know better than the American people. And we’re going to make this decision for you.”
“And I think the best thing that we can do right now is to say, ‘We won’t give up on this. You have not changed our minds,’” she said.
“If there is a bad outcome in this case, we will continue to be dedicated to passing state laws, to supporting women and families through pregnancy centers and through our churches, and [we] will not give up the fight. And I think that’s the best thing the court needs to hear – to know that they need to get out of this business because it’s not going away.”
Some states already have laws in place that would outlaw abortion if Roe were overturned. The Guttmacher Institute, a research organization aligned with the abortion-rights movement, estimates 26 states are sure or likely to prohibit abortion if the high court reverses Roe.
If the justices overrule Roe, AUL’s “number one goal is going to be working with states that have laws that are currently enjoined [by courts] to get those laws in effect,” Glenn said. “There’s no reason to pass a new law if you’ve got a great law on the books and you can finally enforce it.”
Pro-life lawmakers also are giving attention early in 2022 to the dispensing of drugs for chemical or medical abortions, Glenn said.
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In December, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a permanent rule lifting the requirement a woman must appear in person to receive mifepristone, the first drug in a two-step process known as chemical or medical abortion. While mifepristone may still be dispensed in qualified health-care facilities, it also may be mailed or delivered to a woman by a certified pharmacy.
Many state legislators are opposed to the new rule, Glenn said. “[S]tates are saying, ‘If the FDA and the federal government [are] not going to have this in their rules, we’re going to pass this into state law.”
State lawmakers also are seeking to provide resources for women and families in the event the high court reverses Roe, Glenn said. If abortion becomes illegal, there “will still be women and families that need support,” she told BP. “So how can the government either get out of the way so that private charities, churches, pregnancy centers can really step up and help those women or how can the government partner with those groups to help facilitate the kinds of support that we know our neighbors are going to need.”
