The pro-life Susan B. Anthony List is preparing to provide care for all the additional babies that will be born if the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion nationwide.
“When the Supreme Court releases its hold on abortion policymaking, we will show the world that we are ready and willing to empower women and promote life,” Lynn Fitch, Mississippi’s pro-life attorney general, said in a statement.
The Susan B. Anthony List announced Monday that it is launching a campaign in partnership with Fitch that will benefit a slew of pro-life pregnancy centers across Missisippi.
The state has more than 30 pro-life pregnancy centers, according to a Susan B. Anthony List press release, centers which have served more than 12,000 people and provided almost $2 million in resources in 2019 alone, according to an impact report conducted by the Susan B. Anthony List’s research arm, the Charlotte Lozier Institute.
Conducted by the Susan B. Anthony List’s Her PLAN (Her Pregnancy and Life Assistance Network) project, the “Empower Women Promote Life Donation Drive” is a “virtual baby shower,” through which benefactors can purchase items to donate to babies and mothers in need, according to a press release.
“We may have to wait on the court’s [Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization] decision for a few more months, but we don’t have to wait to show the world that we stand ready to support women,” Fitch said in a statement.
The Mississippi attorney general drew on Valentine’s Day, urging supporters to join her in “showing a little extra love to these centers and the women they support by participating in a virtual baby shower for pregnancy centers all across Mississippi.”
Pro-abortion critics—such as the former president of Planned Parenthood, Leana Wen—often accuse pro-life clinics or pregnancy centers of misrepresenting themselves and tricking women into forgoing abortions.
Critics also often accuse pro-life advocates of only caring about the baby before it’s born and of shirking responsibility for the baby and mother afterward.
But leaders at the Susan B. Anthony List emphasize that the pro-life movement exists to serve the baby and the mother both before and after birth.
“The soul of the pro-life movement is love for both unborn children and their mothers,” Susan B. Anthony List President Marjorie Dannenfelser said in a statement. “Thousands of pregnancy centers, maternity homes, and other community heroes across the nation have spent decades demonstrating that love and compassion every day through their service to women and families facing difficult situations.”
The same cannot be said of pro-abortion groups, Dannenfelser added, noting that the abortion industry offers women only one solution—to “get rid of the child.”
“With a decision in the Dobbs case on the horizon, countless Americans are asking how we will care for the children who will be born into a nation that rejects abortion,” she added. “Through initiatives like Her PLAN, the Texas Alternatives to Abortion program, and many more, the pro-life movement stands ready to provide the resources necessary to choose life.”
The effort comes as Americans await a decision in the Dobbs case, which involves a 2018 Mississippi law that banned abortions after 15 weeks’ gestation.
Polling released in late January found that many Americans reject a central tenet of Roe v. Wade. Some 71% of Americans support legal limits on abortion, according to a poll commissioned by the global Catholic fraternal order the Knights of Columbus and conducted by the Marist Poll.
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