The success of the anti-abortion movement is far from sudden. In Ohio, Michael Gonidakis, president of Ohio Right to Life, said legislative successes in his state have come about through years of slow, careful and sometimes tedious work.
Because Ohio was the first state to try, in 2011, to pass a ban on abortion after a fetal heartbeat is detected, Mr. Gonidakis said he had received calls from “state senators in almost every Midwestern state” asking about strategy. He also talked on the phone with policy staff for the State Senate in Kentucky, which later passed its own heartbeat bill.
[What are ‘heartbeat’ laws, and what do they mean for women?]
Activists have been buttressed by many of the nation’s conservative churches, which have increased their emphasis on abortion policy in recent years. A few decades ago, many Southern Baptist churches would preach far more frequently against divorce, fornication and premarital sex, said Wayne Flynt, one of Alabama’s most influential historians and an ordained Baptist minister. “There has been a huge shift,” he said, “and a narrowing of focus to abortion and same-sex marriage.”
This cultural movement is finding wins beyond the outright abortion bans. In Arkansas, where lawmakers recently banned most abortions after 18 weeks, Rose Mimms, who has led Arkansas Right to Life for 26 years, worked to pass additional priorities of the movement that have gotten much less public attention. While fellow activists pushed through things like the ban and a trigger law to outlaw most abortions if Roe is overturned, Ms. Mimms, 64, focused on under-the-radar bills, like one to amend the state’s safe haven law.
A couple of years ago, she heard an activist speak about a “Safe Haven Baby Boxes” project, to install and promote secure boxes at hospitals and fire stations for women to surrender their infants without the threat of criminal prosecution. The interaction prompted her to push for a new law, passed this February, to add fire stations as a drop-off location.
from Best News Viral http://bit.ly/2Hq2XXx
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