Planned Parenthood plans to close more than 40 of its clinics this year–a move that on the surface seems like a big win for the pro-life movement.
It recently closed a mammoth 78,000 square foot clinic in Houston, Texas, one of the largest abortion facilities in the Western Hemisphere. In nearby Louisiana, it has shut down all operations. It's even closing sites in pro-abortion states like California and Illinois.
Still, pro-life leaders see little consolation, mainly because pregnant women no longer need a brick-and-mortar clinic to get an abortion. They can easily access pills online or at their neighborhood pharmacy.
"They have now opened up this wild, wild west of abortion in America where even if you live in a pro-life state, a state that has moved to make abortion a thing of the past, abortions are still happening in your state," Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America told CBN News.
Hawkins is leading a movement to push back against pharmacies like Walgreens and CVS, demanding they stop dispensing abortion pills. One recent victory came when Costco announced it will not sell them.
The bigger concern however, is online access.
"We're concerned about these mail order abortion pills," said Hawkins. "We have states like West Virginia, Kentucky that have made abortion a thing in the past where now there's billboards being widely distributed across the state telling women in those states where they can get illegal chemical abortion pills shipped to them."
Kelsey Pritchard, the director of state public affairs at SBA Pro-Life America said the prevalence of abortion pills shows how dramatically the abortion landscape has changed.
"The abortion lobby used to say that abortion is a decision between a woman and her doctor," she told CBN News. "They don't use that talking point very much anymore because what they've done, what the Biden administration essentially did was completely remove the doctor from the picture so that you can get these pills online without an in-person doctor visit."
The Trump administration is currently investigating the abortion pill for safety concerns. Still, pro-life activists worry the FDA's recent approval of a generic pill will make the drug even more accessible.
For now, pro-life states are fighting back.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott recently approved a bill allowing private citizens to sue out-of-state abortion providers. They're up against shield laws in at least eight states.
The laws prevent states that ban abortions from suing providers in states where it's legal.
California lawmakers are going further with a bill to remove names from prescriptions in order to protect those who prescribe and dispense them. Gov. Gavin Newsom recently signed it.
"Blue states are completely disregarding state sovereignty of red states," said Pritchard. "They're disregarding the laws and the judicial processes of red states."
Louisiana is already fighting a New York abortionist who shipped pills to the state and has sued the FDA for allowing pills to be mailed nationwide.
Pro-life leaders expect that the Supreme Court will ultimately weigh in on these disputes. For now, Hawkins, Pritchard and others are heading to college campuses, state capitols and the halls of Congress, fighting to promote individual decisions for life and the policies that encourage them.
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