FIRST ON FOX: Leading pro-life activist groups are already shifting from celebrating former President Donald Trump’s victory to drawing up plans for his second term, Fox News Digital has learned.
A memorandum shared exclusively with Fox News Digital by Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America (SBA), one of the country’s largest and most influential pro-life groups, lays out the group’s plans and priorities for the upcoming administration in what they hope will serve as the beginning of a roadmap for pro-life victories in the years to come.
It states that while Democrats spent $570 million on abortion advertising, Trump’s blowout victory is evidence that the American people do not support the unrestricted abortion access endorsed by Vice President Kamala Harris and many top Democrats.
“Democrats’ abortion fearmongering campaign was a spectacular failure in the first presidential election since the reversal of Roe,” the memo says. “Meanwhile, President T
rump did what he’s done better than anyone since 2016: he effectively cast the Democrats as the real extremists on abortion who support abortion even in the seventh, eighth and ninth month of pregnancy and even refuse to support giving basic medical care to children who survive attempted abortions.”
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White women upset about abortion rights could help Vice President Harris win the 2024 election, CNN’s data reporter speculated. (Getty Images)
“With victory in hand,” the memo asks: “What’s next?”
First, the memo states that the Trump administration must immediately undo every abortion policy instituted over the last four years under the Biden-Harris administration.
“The accomplishments from President Trump’s first term become the baseline for the second term,” the memo continues. “However, in order to even get to the baseline, there is much that must be undone from the Biden-Harris regime, which worked tirelessly to promote abortion in every nook and cranny of the federal government. It all must be undone.”
Marjorie Dannenfelser, the president of SBA, told Fox News Digital that her group will push for the “cleansing” of tax funding of abortion during the first 100 days of the Trump administration through the Department of Defense, Health and Human Services and other government agencies, as well as through grants to groups like Planned Parenthood.
Dannenfelser added that the Trump administration should clarify what resources and options are available to women who do not want to choose abortion during the first 100 days. She also said Trump should reinstate the “Mexico City Policy” that prohibits the government from pushing or paying for abortion internationally.
ST CLOUD, MINNESOTA – JULY 27: Republican vice presidential nominee U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) introduces U.S. Republican Presidential nominee former President Donald Trump during a rally at Herb Brooks National Hockey Center on July 27, 2024 in St Cloud, Minnesota. Trump hopes to flip the state of Minnesota this November, which hasn’t been carried by a Republican in a presidential election since 1972. (Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)
Dannenfelser did not take a national abortion limit off the table, though she admitted it is “not a day one” issue.
While the pro-life movement had a lot to celebrate this past week, seven states passed sweeping amendments to enshrine abortion into their state law, significantly expanding abortion in those states. This followed a series of similar amendments being passed by voters in California, Ohio, Michigan and Vermont.
Dannenfelser acknowledged that she understands Americans are not ready to accept the protection of all unborn life after 50 years under Roe v. Wade, but said she believes there should be at least a “minimum standard” of protection for the unborn across the nation.
SBA noted in its memo that “to go on offense and truly defeat the abortion industry in the long term, we must strengthen the pro-life, pro-woman, pro-family resolve of the Republican Party, centered on the unalienable right to life for the unborn child that exists under the 14th Amendment.”
Dannenfelser said that the job of the pro-life movement over the next few years will be to help advance the cultural conversation about what minimum standards the country should enact to protect unborn life.
SBA Pro-Life America has spent $92 million on voter contact operations ahead of Nov. 5, 2024. (SBA Pro-Life America)
She pointed to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who she said provides a model of a leader who is effectively engaging in and promoting cultural conversation about abortion.
Florida, along with South Dakota and Nebraska, became the first states to defeat any abortion initiative since the overturn of Roe v. Wade.
Dannenfelser said that DeSantis’ leadership “showed exactly what you do” to win pro-life victories.
“You don’t pretend it’s not happening; you go on offense against extremism,” she said. “DeSantis showed that when you go full-on, you defy all the prognosticators and fend off that horrible initiative.”
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis urged voters to vote “No,” on Amendment 4. He said that the language in the amendment was “vague” and impacts parental rights. (WOFL)
SBA is not the only pro-life group mobilizing since Trump’s victory. Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America (SFLA), told Fox News Digital that her group has also developed a plan titled “Make America Pro-Life Again” that “encompasses both federal action as well as state actions.”
For the early days of the administration, Hawkins said SFLA would prioritize four main policies: 1) Appointing pro-life officials to federal agencies such as the Department of Health and Human Services, FDA and DOJ, 2) Releasing pro-life activists imprisoned under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, completely defunding Planned Parenthood and to investigate the harmful chemicals used by chemical abortion pills.
Hawkins also said that she will continue to advocate for abortion restrictions on the federal level, but like Dannenfelser, she granted that will not be likely to happen soon.
For now, she said that Trump’s “day one” priority should be defunding Planned Parenthood.
Planned Parenthood Mobile Clinic outside the Democratic National Convention 2024 (Jamie Joseph/Fox News Digital)
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“Students for Life America has always been very clear; abortion is 100% federal. The pro-life movement is clear that abortion is 100% federal. Why? Because your right to not be killed because you’re simply inconvenient to another does not begin and end at state lines,” she told Fox News Digital. “We disagree with President Trump on this point. However, we are able to work with President Trump at this point and the first thing he must do is defund and debar Planned Parenthood.”
Also looming large behind both these groups’ plans is the possibility of a Supreme Court justice retiring or passing away. Neither Dannenfelser nor Hawkins divulged who they might support for a Supreme Court nomination, but, like before, Hawkins said she expects Trump to appoint justices supporting the unborn.
“Our ask of President Trump in 2015 and 2016 will be the same ask of President Trump in 2025 or whenever that happens in this administration, that if there is a Supreme Court vacancy, no matter if it’s a Sotomayor or it’s a Justice Thomas, that the person that he nominates, the person that will be confirmed by the US Senate, will not be an abortion activist, they will be a constitutionalist, and they’ll know what’s in the Constitution and what’s not in the Constitution. One of the things that’s not in the Constitution is the right to end the life of an inconvenient human child.”
