The Weekly Spotlight: They Are Losing the Argument, So They Are Rigging the Rules

The anti-abortion movement has a problem: the public has seen the true impact of abortion bans, and does not like what it sees.

Four years after the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade, more Americans identify as pro-choice than they did before the ruling. 

As a result, the anti-abortion movement is no longer relying on persuasion, but instead on bureaucracy, legal intimidation and political power.

This week, a court ruled that unnecessary restrictions placed on the abortion pill mifepristone were unlawful. The United Nations formally recognised attacks on reproductive autonomy as a form of violence. Meanwhile, here in Britain, the anti-abortion movement is preparing to march through London again under the comforting language of “family”.

The overarching question remains the same across both countries: who gets to control a pregnancy?

Abortion Bans Have Shifted Public Opinion, Just Not in the Direction the Right Wanted

When the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade in 2022, anti-abortion campaigners celebrated the result of a decades-long political project.

They had captured the Supreme Court, dismantled federal abortion protections and handed individual states the power to impose bans.

However, we all know that ending Roe did not make abortion disappear. Instead, it exposed what the anti-abortion movement’s policies actually mean in practice. 

Women have been forced to travel hundreds of miles for healthcare. Doctors have been forced to delay treatment, while lawyers assess whether a patient is considered close enough to death for them to intervene. 

The political consequences are becoming much harder to ignore. Recent analysis of US polling found that more Americans now identify as pro-choice than before Dobbs. People have also moved towards stronger positions, with growing numbers saying abortion should either always be legal or always be illegal.

Thankfully, the larger shift has been towards protecting abortion rights, whereby as abortion laws became more restrictive, public support for abortion access increased.

“Abortion bans” can sound abstract when they are presented as campaign slogans. But they become much less appealing when people see patients denied miscarriage treatment, doctors threatened with prison, and politicians demanding access to peoples’ private medical records.

The anti-abortion movement wanted Dobbs to settle the argument. Instead, it showed the public what is at stake.

A Court Has Ruled That Abortion-Pill Restrictions Were Not Based on Evidence

Medication abortion remains one of the biggest obstacles to the anti-abortion movement’s attempt to control access.

Mifepristone is safe, effective, and now used in nearly two-thirds of abortions in the United States. It can be prescribed through telemedicine and sent through the post, allowing people to access care without travelling hundreds of miles or entering a clinic surrounded by protesters. It is for these reasons that anti-abortion campaigners continue to target it.

This week, a federal judge ruled that restrictions imposed by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) were “arbitrary and capricious” and ordered the agency to reconsider them.

The current rules require prescribers and pharmacies to obtain special certification, while patients must sign additional paperwork before receiving the medication. The court found that the FDA had failed to explain why these were necessary, due to decades of evidence confirming mifepristone’s safety and effectiveness.

This is an important victory, but it does not end the attacks on medical abortion. The Trump administration is already reviewing mifepristone, while Republican-controlled states and anti-abortion organisations continue to pursue legal cases aimed at restricting how the medication can be prescribed and used.

We must continue to highlight the safety and effectiveness of mifepristone and advocate for make it more accessible across all states to ensure equal access to healthcare that doesn’t discriminate across borders. 

The United Nations Has Formally Acknowledged ‘Reproductive Violence’

Something important also happened at the international level.

A United Nations Human Rights Council resolution has formally acknowledged reproductive violence, including forced pregnancy and the denial of reproductive healthcare, as a violation experienced by women and girls.

International human-rights bodies have long recognised forced pregnancy in the context of war as a form of violence against women and girls. However, this new resolution places reproductive control within a broader understanding of violence, coercion and discrimination, not limited to conflict zones. 

It recognises that violence is not limited to a physical attack, but can also mean using legislation to deny someone control over their reproductive life. By denying abortion access, states are using their power to restrict healthcare in order to impose unwanted pregnancy and birth on women and girls. 

This is precisely why anti-abortion campaigners have worked hard to capture courts, rewrite medical regulation, and redefine embryos as legal persons. 

Britain Is Not Watching From the Sidelines

Whilst the recent events above are in the context of the United States, we continue to have increased anti-abortion campaigning ongoing in Britain. 

On Saturday 5 September, March for Life UK will be returning to London, bringing anti-abortion organisations, religious campaigners, and international allies into the heart of Westminster.

The theme for 2026 is “Abortion Hurts the Family”. We argue that families deserve better than this imported evangelical nonsense. Families deserve reproductive freedom: they need access to contraception, maternity care, abortion, fertility treatment, financial security and the freedom to decide whether, when and how to have children. Taking these away does not protect families, it enforces state control over reproduction. 

March for Life UK is not simply a group of individuals expressing private religious beliefs. It is part of a wider political movement aiming to roll back abortion rights around the world. They seek to undermine telemedicine and drag Britain into the same manufactured culture war already causing harm across the US.

That is why we will be in Parliament Square too to meet them head-on and show them that we are the pro-choice majority and we will not allow them to take away our rights in the same way we have seen across the pond.

They Are Losing the Argument, But That Does Not Mean They Are Losing Power

Public opinion matters, but we know that rights are not protected by polling alone and can be taken away in an instant. 

Most people in the US did not support overturning Roe v Wade, but it happened anyway. We know that 9 in 10 people in Britain support access to legal abortion. However, our rights are hardly untouchable. The fall of Roe showed what can happen when an organised minority spends decades capturing political parties, courts and institutions while presenting its demands as marginal or impossible. 

The anti-abortion movement does not need to win a majority over. It only needs money, access, sympathetic politicians and enough institutional power to make reproductive healthcare harder to provide.

This week brought signs of hope and resistance. A court challenged medically unnecessary restrictions on abortion pills. The United Nation named reproductive control as violence. And support for abortion access remains stronger than the movement trying to destroy it.

Let’s keep the positive momentum going. On 5 September, join us to Stand Up for Choice against the antis, and show them that we are the pro-choice majority. 

Sources

• Reuters: US judge says restrictions on prescribing abortion drug are unlawful
• The Guardian: Judge rules FDA restrictions on mifepristone are arbitrary and capricious
• Rewire News Group/The Conversation: Public opinion on abortion four years after Dobbs
• United Nations Human Rights Council: Resolution recognising reproductive violence