ACLJ's Massive Fight for Life Across 28 States

The ACLJ is actively working for life in 28 states, engaging in nearly 50 legislative and legal actions, standing up for the unborn and fighting to defeat Planned Parenthood. This comes as we wait for the most monumental pro-life decision in a decade – Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization – that could overturn Roe v. Wade. Meanwhile, there is an attack on the pro-life movement at the state level happening right now.

States are already proactively going to the state courts before the Dobbs decision has even been released. For instance, Governor Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan has filed a lawsuit to safeguard abortion in her state even if Roe v. Wade is overturned.

Gov. Whitmer gave her reasoning for this lawsuit:

Here’s the thing: The [Michigan] Supreme Court has never weighed in on this, and that’s why it’s important to do so right now. Regardless of how people personally feel about abortion, it’s a woman’s health and well-being that should be driving these important medical decisions. That’s what’s so important and what’s at stake here. I’m confident in our legal case that we’re bringing, but I can’t predict precisely what the outcome’s going to be.

In another attack on the unborn, lawmakers in Maryland tried to push training on non-doctors to perform abortions. The state would set aside $3.5 million of taxpayer money a year to train nurse practitioners, midwives, physician’s assistants, and others to expand abortion procedures. To make matters worse, in California, lawmakers are trying to push legalization that could effectively legalize the murder of a newborn as long as it is within the “perinatal” period – meaning approximately 1-4 weeks after birth, and the state’s own pro-abortion-majority controlled committee staff analysis confirmed this “undesirable conclusion.”

ACLJ Senior Counsel CeCe Heil explained this trend by the states:

The fight for life is definitely at a height, and it is going to continue. I know people keep thinking if Dobbs comes down, and Roe v. Wade is overturned, that the battle is over. But as we can see, it is not. Again, we have 28 states that we are currently fighting in and nearly 50 actions. I think that is going to just exponentially increase when the Dobbs decision comes down.

Those won’t be the last states that will try to pass their own legislation in order to continue the horrific practice of abortion. ACLJ Chief Counsel and my dad Jay Sekulow explained how this will continue in the legal world:

Depending on what Dobbs decides, I think what we are going to find ourselves in is state courts, because there is going to be no federally recognized right to abortion. Thus, the question is going to be under their state constitution, is there an authority to have this right to abortion recognized? I think the reality, this is my view, is we are going to be fighting in these states very aggressively.

In summary, Jay said:

We need to be very clear on this. Planned Parenthood is ever present in Washington, D.C., on Capitol Hill. . . . If you think that they’re going to give up, that’s not going to happen. Now it’s going to drastically change the battle, and it will focus the battle. We are talking about nearly 50 actions in 28 states. That will expand. . . . Think about the pro-abortion movement, and now they have people in very high places who are willing to do this. This is why you’ve got to fight back and fight back aggressively. They are a juggernaut. They have billion-dollar budgets. . . . And were fighting back and beating them in court; we beat them in court in the Gulf Coast region . . . we just tried a case in New Jersey; our team is working on one right now in Kentucky; we’ve got one on appeal in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals involving the Center for Medical Progress; we’ve got an appeal for Governor Noem in South Dakota that we just filed the reply brief in this last week. All of this is happening simultaneously right now.

We are working around the clock to defend the lives of the unborn, and we are prepared to go state by state to ensure pro-life laws are created and protected. We will provide updates on these cases as they come.

Today’s full Sekulow broadcast is complete with even more in-depth analysis of our work defending the unborn.

Watch the full broadcast below: