With abortion on the ballot in 9 states, pro-life supporters ‘need to be engaged,’ leader says

CNA Staff, Aug 23, 2024 / 11:09 am

With pro-abortion measures now on ballots in nine states, a prominent pro-life activist appearing on “EWTN Pro-Life Weekly” called on pro-life supporters to “be engaged.”

Abortion is currently on the ballot in Montana, Nevada, Colorado, Arizona, South Dakota, Missouri, New York, Maryland, Florida, and potentially Nebraska, where a measure is pending.

When asked on Thursday if it’s likely for these measures to be passed, Kelsey Pritchard, the director of state public affairs at Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, told EWTN News President and COO Montse Alvarado that “it all depends upon what happens between now and Election Day in those states.”

“As the pro-life community, we all need to be engaged,” she said. “We need to pray, and we need to engage however we can, whether it’s by making sure everyone in our lives knows what these amendments do, or whether it’s by donating money or donating our time.”

“Arizona already has a 15-week law, so this would be about abortions purely after the point science shows a baby can feel pain: This is after when a baby can smile, suck their thumb, when you know if it’s a boy or a girl,” Pritchard said. “This is about late-term abortion.”

“Again, in Montana, they already have a viability law,” she continued. “This is about enshrining second- and third-trimester abortion and forcing taxpayers to fund abortion.”

Many of the ballot measures would enshrine abortion as a right and allow abortion up until “fetal viability,” generally at about 22-24 weeks. But Pritchard said that “the way things are worded in those amendments, they essentially allow all-trimester abortion, because they have gaping health exceptions that the courts have ruled can include familial health, age.”

“The abortionist is the one who decides when a woman needs an abortion,” Pritchard said. “An abortionist can, at any point in a woman’s pregnancy, justify abortion. That is horrific. That is even after the point of viability, when a baby could survive outside of the womb.”

Pritchard said the current Democratic platform is “very extreme” on abortion.

“I can tell you that the Democratic platform mentions abortion more than [it] ever has. They use the word ‘abortion’ 13 times in their platform. In previous years, it’s been in there two, three, four times,” she said. 

“Abortion is what they’re running on. They’re very extreme on this issue. They believe in all-trimester abortion, no limits whatsoever.”

This week’s Democratic National Convention featured numerous pro-abortion speakers, a 20-foot inflatable intrauterine device (IUD), a mobile Planned Parenthood abortion clinic parked near the venue offering free abortions and vasectomies, and a march outside the DNC with activists dressed as abortion pills. 

“It’s really despicable what’s going on there at the DNC,” Pritchard said. 

“I just hope and pray that it wakes people up, not only on our side to be more engaged, but people in the Democrat Party as well. This is no longer the party of ‘safe, legal, and rare.’ It’s the party of abortion done by anyone at any time, anywhere.”

When asked if states have a lot of support for pro-abortion measures, Pritchard said that “the abortion lobby wants us all to think that they have these races in the bag and that there’s no way that the pro-life community can win with ballot measures.”

“They point to previous races,” she noted. “The truth is that we’ve had similar [pro-abortion] measures passed in Michigan and Ohio. But Michigan, again, is a pretty blue state. Ohio is a purple state. We have up to seven red states that could have abortion on the ballots in November. And so the dynamics are different in these states.”

“We have a shot at winning in every single one, but it all depends on all of us getting involved and speaking out,” Pritchard said.