The antiabortion movement spent nearly 50 years organizing around one goal: overturning Roe v. Wade. With that success, what’s next? We go inside the movement’s biggest annual event to examine its diverging paths and possible futures.
The annual March for Life is the antiabortion movement’s biggest event of the year, bringing tens of thousands of protesters to the National Mall in D.C. But this year’s march was different. With Roe v. Wade now overturned and the constitutional right to an abortion no longer guaranteed, the movement has achieved its most important singular goal – the one around which it had coalesced for nearly 50 years.
National political reporter Caroline Kitchener went inside this year’s march to see how the antiabortion movement is approaching this post-Roe moment, and how its possible paths forward may be diverging. With a sense of jubilation on one hand and an air of disappointment on the other, she found a movement wrestling with how to stay united and win a bigger battle: the hearts and minds of a country that largely favors abortion.
Antiabortion politicians are mounting efforts to further restrict abortion locally and nationally. Their efforts could restrict access to abortion even in so-called “haven states.” And an imminent federal district court ruling in Texas could have a “catastrophic” effect on access to abortion pills nationwide.
Caroline’s ongoing audio reporting with “Post Reports” was honored this week with a prestigious duPont-Columbia Award! You can listen to more of our coverage of this important issue here:
Preparing for a post-Roe America
In Oklahoma, a closing window to access abortion
Drafting the end of Roe v. Wade