By Peter J. Smith

WASHINGTON, D.C., November 4, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Pro-life women made great gains in Tuesday’s mid-term U.S. elections, expanding their numbers in Congress; they also now strongly outnumber pro-abortion women in state governorships.

Susan B. Anthony List reports that the number of pro-life women governors is now four, thanks to the election of candidates Susana Martinez (R-New Mexico), Nikki Haley (R-South Carolina), and Mary Fallin (R-Oklahoma).

The addition of Fallin as governor of Oklahoma will significantly benefit the legislature’s pro-life agenda. Outgoing pro-abortion Gov. Brad Henry (D) repeatedly stonewalled the legislature’s attempts to pass pro-life measures with 8 vetoes. The legislature managed seven successful veto overrides to achieve major pro-life laws; however they ran out of time to override Henry’s veto of a ban on elective abortion coverage in health insurance plans.

Gov. Jan Brewer (R) also handily won her re-election bid in Arizona.

All four women faced pro-abortion Democrat challengers in their respective contests.

Besides Brewer, the only other sitting female governor of a U.S. state is Washington’s Christine Gregoire, a pro-abortion Democrat.

Susan B. Anthony List reports that pro-life women made gains in both the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate.

The pro-life political action committee said the number of pro-life women in the House increased by 60 percent, while the number of pro-abortion women diminished by 16 percent.

“This shift in numbers from pro-abortion to pro-life women is historic and no accident,” SBA List President Marjorie Dannenfelser said. “It is a corrective moment for the women’s movement which must either drop abortion out of its center or risk dropping off the face of the earth.”

Not all the House races for pro-life women are finished either. New York’s 25th District is still waiting to see whether former U.S. attorney and Operation Rescue leader Ann Marie Buerkle (R) will pull out a win over pro-abortion incumbent Dan Maffei (D). Buerkle so far leads Maffei by 659 votes, with approximately 10,000 absentee ballots needing to be counted.

In New Hampshire, Kelly Ayotte’s election to the U.S. Senate means the chamber will have its first female pro-life Senator. Carly Fiorina (R-Calif.) had hoped to join Ayotte in that distinction, but came up short in her own U.S. Senate bid to defeat pro-abortion incumbent Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.).