Take the Long View on the Fight for Life

On Tuesday, Ohioans voted 57 to 43 percent in favor of adding a sweeping right to abortion to their state constitution. This result was not unexpected given the results of Ohio’s August referendum on raising the threshold for enacting constitutional amendments (a fight that became a proxy battle over abortion), but the loss nevertheless stings for advocates of the right to life. The pro-life side is now zero-for-seven in abortion referenda since the Dobbs decision in June 2022, and Ohio marks the first time a red state has added a pro-abortion amendment to its constitution.

The adversaries and false friends of the pro-life movement will undoubtedly use this loss to try to convince pro-lifers that their cause is politically toxic and that they just ought to give up. In the mind of anyone who knows the truth that abortion deliberately kills an innocent human being, giving up on the most important human-rights cause of our time is unthinkable. After five decades of Roe and less than two years from Dobbs, the fight for life in the democratic arena has barely begun.

But the loss in Ohio does occasion a clear-eyed assessment of the challenges the pro-life movement faces now and what will likely be a long battle ahead.