As 2024 unfolds as a general election year, much is at stake in the pro-life movement in a post-Dobbs world. States are now in more control of abortion regulations and those on the left are willing to fight harder. Eyes are on states where abortion is still legal, and lobbyists who want to protect the unborn are busy amping up their game to defend life.
Students for Life Action, the advocacy training arm of Students for Life of America, has identified 17 key states in which lobbyists are going to be busy.
A call went out to supporters late in December prior to the opening of the states’ 2024 legislative sessions:
Legislators in states across America will soon be debating whether humans inside the womb should have the same rights as humans outside the womb.
We are inviting the Pro-Life Generation to lobby with us to ensure the pro-life voice is heard.
Our team has identified 17 states (listed below) where we know it is urgent that a pro-life voice is heard.
If you live near or in one of these states below, please click here to register for Lobby for Life starting in January, when the state legislative session begins.
The identified states are Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Indiana, Georgia, South Carolina, Florida, Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Oklahoma, Wyoming, North Carolina, Ohio, Nebraska, New Hampshire, and Iowa.
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The group says the grassroots are more important than ever for protecting life.
“Students for Life Action knows that the hard work of defending life happens at the grassroots level,” said Mattison Brooks, press strategist and online editor. “With monthly trainings and dozens of political workshops, our field team is ready to hit the ground running in 2024, including training our 200,000th student activist,”
SFL Action provided a look at some of the issues at hand in those 17 states.
“These are battles that we've been fighting since the last legislative session,” Brooks said.
Because of the actions of SFL Action, issues like House Bill 2492 in Kansas are becoming a reality. The bill prohibits abortion in Kansas with the exception of saving the mother’s life, taking a page from the Texas Heartbeat Law. It’s still out for debate in Kansas, but voices of SFL Action are being heard.
The Iowa caucus is behind us, but the future is looking brighter in this Midwest state. This past summer SFL Action members testified in favor of the Heartbeat Abortion Prevention Act at the same time Planned Parenthood activists protested for “abortion for any reason at any time.”
SFL Action sent 10 representatives to Nebraska at the start of the new year to take stacks of petitions to government officials. The petitions were in favor of the Nebraska Heartbeat Act. The team also reached out to pro-choice Senators Lynn Walz and Merv Riepe. Riepe was unavailable at the time of the visit, but Walz said she wanted to meet with Riepe about the bill because of her concerns “for the mother” in these scenarios.
“We are also launching new battles this year,” Brooks said, referring to a list of pro-life bills in Congress in 2024.
These include a bill to prevent the Department of Health and Human Services from accompanying illegal immigrants for abortions at taxpayer expense as well as a bill to defund Planned Parenthood. Another bill would mandate medical professionals be charged with murder if an aborted infant survives and the medical professional takes the life after the failed procedure. The list of all these bills is outlined on the SFLA blog.
SFL Action also identified the initiatives in various states expected to be on the November 2024 ballot pending signature collections months in advance.
In Florida, for example, a pro-choice group known as “Floridians Protecting Freedom” are trying to get signatures to have voters reverse Heartbeat Abortion Prevention Act, a law Governor Ron DeSantis signed into law.
Meanwhile in Pennsylvania pro-lifers are fighting to have voters decide that abortions should not be paid by taxpayers by amending the state constitution, The primarily Democrat-run state has not set a vote date.
Students for Life of America also hosted its annual pro-life summit the day following the national March for Life in January, where between 1-2,000 young people learn about the latest in pro-life issues.
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There is much to do in 2024.
“The 17 states where we have launched Lobby Day efforts with students and volunteers have been identified as places where we can strengthen protections for the preborn by connecting with local leaders and encouraging passage of strong legislation like Life at Conception Acts, or bills that aim to End Chemical Abortion,” Brooks said.
“These are also states where we have seen efforts by legislators in either party – Republicans or Democrats – attempt to weaken existing pro-life laws or support the predatory abortion industry,” he said. “From DAY ONE, the Pro-life Generation is standing up and saying NO to going backwards or leaving babies unprotected.”
